ARMY-McCARTHY DISPUTE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27501, 8 November 1954, Page 8

ARMY-McCARTHY DISPUTE

Reprimands For Two

Officers (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, November 4. The Army said yesterday it had given official reprimands to two officers for tardy handling of papers in the case of Dr. Irving Peress, the New York dentist involved in Senator Joseph McCarthy’s controversy with the Army. A third officer who handled some of Peress’s papers has since been discharged for “a totally unrelated reason.”

The Army said this information was given to the Republican senator by the Secretary of'the Army (Mr Robert Stevens), in a letter which the Army made public. The letter was in reply to an inquiry from Senator McCarthy on October 25.

The names of the three officers were not revealed by the Army, either in the letter or in a press statement explaining the correspondence. In his letter to Senator McCarthy, Mr Stevens said no action had been taken against the three principal officers involved in the honourable discharge of Major Peress, because none of the officers “manifested the slightest indication of Communist sympathy nor any other dereliction of duty.” Dr. Peress had been described repeatedly by Senator McCarthy as a “Fifth'Amendment Communist.”

Senator McCarthy said tonight the Army “still has not answered the question of who was responsible for the promotion and honourable discharge of this Fifth Amendment Communist."