RELEASED FROM PRISON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27247, 25 November 1949, Page 7

RELEASED FROM PRISON

American Consul-General In Mukden

DEPORTATION ORDERED NZPA—Copyright

Rec 9 p.m WASHINGTON, Nov. 23. Mr Angus Ward, American ConsulGeneral at Mukden, has been released from prison by the Chinese Communists and ordered out of the country. The State Department, which announced this, said the Communists also released four consulate assistants who were arrested with Mr Ward on October 24, on what the department called “trumped up” charges of beating and insulting two Chinese in a wage dispute. .. . . . . The department said it had received word of the releases from Mr Ward himself. It was the first direct word from him in a month. The Communists gave Mr Ward and his assistants a trial before a People’s Court, which found them guilty and imposed varying terms of imprisonment. The sentences were commuted to deportation. . , . . . , , Mr Ward made his report in a telephone conversation with the American Consul-General at Peking, Mr Edmund Clubb. The State Department instructed Mr Clubb to tell Mr Ward to leave Mukden immediately with his entire staff. , The four men convicted with Mr Ward were Mr Ralph Rehberg, a clerk, Mr Shiro Tatsumi, a mechanic, both United States citizens, and Mr Cranco Cicogna and Mr Alfred Klistan, both, European employees of the consulate. The sentences imposed were: Mr Ward, six months’ imprisonment; Mr Rehberg and Mr Klistan, four months; and Mr Tatsumi and Mr Cicogna, three months imprisonment. All were paroled for one year before the sentences were commuted to deportation. The State Department statement said Mr Ward also reported in his telephone conversation with Mr Clubb that in addition to being charged with the assault on Chinese workers he was charged with certain financial obligations, including compensation to the injured, severance of pay, and extra salary payments. The latter two charges apparently are in connection with the closure of the consulate and the discharge of the staff. The State Department added that it had not received a report from Mr Ward of what actually happened on October 11, when the alleged assault took place, and in the period up to the actual arrests on October 24. American officials had hopefully looked for some favourable development in the case since the State Department last week asked 30 nations, including Russia, to express their concern to the Chinese Communists.