MR FORREST AL A ‘WAR CASUALTY,’ PRESIDENT SAYS

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 May 1949, Page 5

MR FORREST AL A ‘WAR CASUALTY,’ PRESIDENT SAYS

WASHINGTON, May 22 (Rec. 10 a.m.). —“I am inexpressibly shocked and grieved to hear of Mr Forrestal’s death,” said President Truman, in a statement from White House. “This able, devoted public servant was as truly a casualty of war as if he died in the firing line.” In Paris, the Secretary of State, Mr Acheson, and Mr Averell Harriman, Marshal Aid roving ambassador, paid tributes to Mr Forrestal’s valuable services to the United States. The county coroner said that Mr Forrestal crashed on to a t thirdstorey ledge and died instantly. The hospital attendants said the body was smashed beyond recognition and they were certain of identity only after a room check. Before leaping from the window Mr Forrestal tied the belt of a bathrobe around his throat. During the first few weeks after his admission to hospital he was guarded, but recently the restrictions on his movements were relaxed. Cloaked In Mystery . Except for a few leakages of information, the story of Mr Forrestal’s illness was cloaked in mystery and official secrecy until he wrote the end to it by leaving the sixteenth floor window at the Bethesda naval hospital. It was announced only that Mr Forrestal was undergoing a physical check-up after his admission on April 2. Reports had circulated in Washington that he had tried to kill himself three times during his rest stay in Florida.

In a broadcast, Mr Drew Pearson said that Mr Forrestal “is out of his mind and apparently has been partly so for some weeks.” Mr Pearson said that Mr Forestal “became obsessed with the idea that the Russians were invading the United States.” Mr Pearson continued that Mr Forrestal ran out of his house in his pyjamas screaming about the Red Army when a fire siren blew and was put to sleep for 72 hours with drugs. The following day Mr Forrestal was flown to Bethesda. Plans For Funeral Delayed

Plans for Mr Forrestal’s funeral will await the return of his widow and elder son, Michael, from Paris. A military plane will fly them back to Washington.

The Defence Secretary, Mr. Louis Johnson, who took over Mr Forrestal’s job in March, ordered flags to be flown at half mast at every United States military installation and on all ships at sea.

The Navy has ordered an investigation of Mr Forrestal’s death to determine, among other things, why Mr Forrestal was left unattended long enough for him to reach a window. (Earlier reports on Page 6).