‘RED DEAN’ IS REFUSED ENTRY TO U.S.

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 August 1948, Page 5

‘RED DEAN’ IS REFUSED ENTRY TO U.S.

(Rec. 11.5 a.m.) LONDON, August 23. The American Consul in London has informed the Dean of Canterbury, Dr Hewlett Johnson (he is known as the “Red Dean”) that the United States authorities will not grant him a visa to enter America because they disapprove of the American-Soviet Friendship Society which invited him. Dr Johnson stated: "11 seems that no steps must he taken in the United States to cultivate American-Soviet understanding or friendship.” Commenting on a Washington report that the refusal of a visa was nothing personal, he said he feared that itAvould be interpreted as a deliberate challenge to Russia. The antiSoviet feeling in America was an emotional wave. “I hope to go there when this has blown over and when Mr Henry Wallace is President, as I think he is sure to be within three years.” he added. Saying that he was flying to Poland tomorrow to attend a congress of intellectuals in defence of peace. Dr Johnson said: “It appears that the Iron Curtain for me stretches across the Atlantic, but a cordial welcome comes from the East. The bishops m the Lambeth Conference laid particular stress on the menace of false propaganda. I wonder if they would lay the same stress on the false propaganda implied in the suppression of truth by the denial of my right to visit the United States.”