FAR EAST REPORT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27357, 5 April 1950, Page 7

FAR EAST REPORT

Lattimore Document CONTENTS DIVULGED NZPA—Copyright Rec. 8 p.m. WASHINGTON, Apl. 3. The document dealing with the situation in the Far East, which was prepared by Professor Owen Lattimore, was made public today after the State Department had refused to divulge its contents. Senator Joseph McCarthy (Republican), who has accused Professor Lattimore of t eing the “ top Russian agent ” in the United States, said today that he knew the secret recommendations made by Professor Lattimore on Far Eastern policy and would reveal them if the State Department would not. Senator McCarthy said he noted with interest the State Department statement that “ This Lattitmore report was so important and of such a confidential nature that the American people were not entitled to know its contents.” Senator McCarthy said he disagreed with this because he felt “ that the American people should know to what extent Professor Lattimore is dictating State Department policy.” Later, counsel for Professor Lattimore announced that the document would be made public and the State Department spokesman said the department had no objection. The spokesman added that Professor Lattimore was among 31 persons, mostly educators, who were asked last August to submit their views on China. The spokesman said Professor Lattimore’s views were “solicited in confidence ” and therefore would not be released by the department itself. The document, which was issued this afternoon, showed that Professor Lattimore advised that the United States should abandon further support for Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, avoid trying to bring trade pressure on Communist China, and to withdraw as soon as possible from “ entanglements ” in South Korea. He also advised the United States to avoid “ premature or excessive strategic deployment in the Far East.” The document said: “If there is to be war it can only be won by defeating Russia not Northern Korea or Viet Nam or even China. If there is to be a long peace the primary factor in making peace . possible will be the stabilisation of relations between \the United States and Russia.” The Senate sub-committee announced today that it had postponed until April 6 Professor Lattimore’s appearance .to reply to Senator McCarthy’s charges. Profesor Lattimore, who has just returned from a United Nations mission to Afghanistan, was to -have appeared before the sub-committee tomorrow, but asked for more time to prepare his statement. , Professor Lattimore has denied that he was ever a member of the Communist Party or that he was a Communist sympathiser. Ignore Subpoenas Earlier today President Truman formally notified Senator Millard Tydings that he had ordered Federal officials to ignore subpoenas demanding the production of the loyalty files of about 90 State Department employees against whom accusations had been made by Senator McCarthy. Senator Tydings is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations sub-committee which is investigating the charges by Senator McCarthy of Communist infiltration of the State Department. • . . “No President has ever complied with an order of a legislative branch directing an executive branch to produce confidential documents the disclosure of which was considered by the President to be contrary to public interest,” President Truman wrote Senator Tydings. The President said that within this century the Attorney-General serving in the Cabinets of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Coolidge. and Franklin Roosevelt had restated the responsibility of an executive branch to maintain the integrity of confidential information when its disclosure would be contrary to public interest. Numerous Presidents had had to meet the issue. They had uniformly repected “ such encroachments on the Constitutional power of the President.” President Truman said the disclosure of the files, instead of helping to keep disloyal people out of the Government, would impair effective means now used for that purpose. He added that the investigation files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not contain proven information alone. They included any unverified charges, allegations, leads, and suspicions. The disclosure of the files would therefore result in serious injustice and damage to the reputations of many innocent persons.