REDS IN AMERICA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20894, 25 November 1937, Page 7

REDS IN AMERICA

DEPORTATION EFFORTS EXAMINED United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received November 24, 8.55 p.m.) WASHINGTON, November 23. The Federal Government Is quietly investigating the alleged campaign aimed to cause the deportation of two officials of the Committee for Industrial Organisation on the ground that they are aliens and members of the Communist Party, says the United Press correspondent. They are Henry Bridges of the Longshoremen’s Union, and Harold Pritchett, president of the New International Woodworkers Union. It is understood that Bridges emphatically denied, at a recent private hearing held by the Labour Department, that he is a Communist, but the case against him is said to be supported by Governor Martin, or Oregon, whose own Investigators inquired into Bridge’s past and testified at several hearings against the Australian.

It is understood that various rank and file members of the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific have also testified as to Bridges's supposed Communistic affiliations. Bridges, who has taken out first citizenship papers three times, allowing the first two to lapse, is expected to complete his naturalisation early in 1938, but under the post-war law any Communist Party affiliation would be sufficient to assure his deportation.

Pritchett Is a Canadian who is in the United States under a temporary visa.