Bishop Walsh Tells His Story

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32351, 17 July 1970, Page 13

Bishop Walsh Tells His Story

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) HONG KONG, July 16.

The American Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop James Walsh, who was released by China last week after 12 years imprisonment, said today that he had signed a confession admitting that he might have been a spy in the Chinese legal sense, but had refused to sign a confession that he was a spy in the commonlyaccepted sense.

Bishop Walsh was speaking at his first press conference since his release last Friday. Written questions were

submitted to him in advance and no further ones were allowed from the floor, so that the bishop, now 79, was not unduly strained. He is said to be in good health, though still weak. He said that he finally signed the confession after intensive interrogation, and after being asked 30, 40 or 50 times to sign it Asked if he now repudiated the confession, Bishop Walsh said: “I have no reason to repudiate it.” Bishop Walsh said that the Chinese authorities in Shang hai had alleged that he ob. tained information about Chinese submarines being built in the city from an unidentified friend in the ship ping business. They also alleged that he had obtained information about weapons used in the Korean War from a young

Chinese soldier who had fought there. The allegation was that he got the information through a Chinese priest during a conversation in Latin.

“But,” Bishop Walsh said, “here are no words in Latin to describe modern weapons of warfare.” He said he bad admitted that he might have broken local import laws by sending a message to Hong Kong for some money; but he found it hard to justify the severity of the sentence meted out to him.

“1 was not a spy, either foi the United States Government or for the Vatican,” he declared.

Bishop Walsh, who was brought into the conference hall in a wheelchair and who spoke in a weak voice, said: “My imprisonment was not all sweetness and light There

were periods of harassment and personal suffering. “The monotony of daily confinement in a small room for 12 years, waking up each morning and trying to plan how I would occupy my day so as to maintain my sanity and ideals as a priest and missioner to the Chinese people, was especially hard to bear.

“But I was treated with basic human dignity and given basic necessities.” Bishop Walsh said that already he was beginning to suspect that many changes had taken place in the world during his imprisonment. “I feel a bit like Rip van Winkle waking up after a long sleep,” he said. Bishop Walsh said that he would like very much to visit Pope Paul, and he hoped to do so when he could travel. He added: “I am just a bit

bewildered by all the fuss and attention that has fol lowed my release. After all, I was only doing my duty as a priest and shepherd by staying with my flock. “I never thought that 1 would see the day of my release,” the bishop went on. “I felt that I would not live long enough to complete my sentence of 20 years, and that I would die in prison. It is a bit hard for me to believe, even now, that I have been released.

“I have no bitterness toward those who tried and condemned me. 1 love the Chinese people. I just could never feel angry with any Chinese. I felt that way almost from the day I first set foot in China in 1918, and it has just grown stronger with the years, even during my imprisonment’’