◆ SpookStack

k f i =F , Ss hiiehatetentemmememennasaialiicceatee areata ee Ce de ee eae j 4 i ‘ccrmmunicating with her scn curing wartine thrcugh the State Department ‘da sorvices worg assured fcr Mr, Roosevelt's third tern campaign as scen . Saticn with Mr. Jchn J th . ; - @- . ea re) Sa : ) i Aa. Wise mtters, however, failod to concyurn the case when, through’ 4, tho efforts of the British sclicitor, F. Graham Mav, the prosecuticn _¢hese to drcp the charge cf informing the enemy and change it to 1 "larceny cf confidential dccuments", Kont's Lenden atterney declared: ’ “The vordict was cno of. oxpodiency and under outside instructicn," Tyler Kont was sentenced to seven years! social impriscnment at £ Wandsworth Penitentiary. This means imprisoned with criminals ' w yather than os o prlitical priscner, after a hunger strike which ontc¢ ino hespitil coll, he was visited by a member cf the United States Enbassy, in Lenden, and shortly afterward transferred tc an old monastery : wpod as a political priscn cn the Isje cf Wight, whore he was Imown to be i up tc September 23, 1944. One-hundred and twenty other pelitical prisocn- ors, including Adniral Denville, a retired British A@miral, and many ; tther prominent anti-Churchill Britishors wsre there imprisened with hin. Abcut o year after Tylcr Kent was sentenced, scme details of this & astonishing case began to leak cut. Kent's ther, a veteran cf the Spanish-Arerican War, had served twent rs in the Jnited . .Statos Consular Service; his mcther (Mrs. Ann H. PAMKent, cf 2112 Wyoming _ Avonus, N.W., Washington, BD. C.) widcwed, drow a M3 Department pension, t The scn, Tyler Kent, had entered the State Departmoht Service as a clerk and had a record for brilliant service, The mcthor was accustomed tc mil bag. Net until three weeks after Kent's arrest did his mcther Imov, from tho State Department, evon the fact thit cemmnicaticn with her sen md ceased, and then all details were refused her. Later Mrs, Kent learned thrcugh tho British Embassy in Washingten, BD. C., that the seri- cusness of the case arcsec from the foct that it involved Winsten Chur- chill himself. Tho appeals te the State Department for information cn ber scn's “case breught mestly rudo rebuffs to this fine American mether ef more than sixty years cf age, who had, with her husband, served her country in many fercign lends. Assistant Secretary cf State Breckenridge Leng finally receivecé Mrs. Kent,, when she refused to leave the State De- partment without sooing soneone, He subjected her to a torrent cf angry weres and concluded: “When the British are through with ycur scn, we Will presecute him te tho limit of the law." Mrs, Kent asked: "Preso- cuto him fer what, Mr. Long?" The Assistant Secretary of State was un-. able to say "for what.” ; : Ee reek sirens aetna aries othe el et _ All that Tyler Kont and his methor -- and all interested Amricans-- / 38k is that the young Embassy clerk be brought home and preperly charged and tried under American law, er, “Mrs. Kont has been tceld that Ambassddor Kennedy regretted almest “ry immedi ly his impreper oct in turning this ycung min cver tc Britis risdicticn and sending two Embassy secrotarics -- one of thom RudclgpScheoenfeld -- to the English court te give suppcsititicus testimony a t hin. Tyler Kent has teria a friend whe visited him in prison that Afbassadcr Kennedy hed on ene ceeasion offered to prccure his reieasc cn conditicn that ycung Kent vould -tako cath that he would aovor Civulgs the centents cf certain cablegrams co¢ed and decoded threugh the previous winter. Kent said he refused the "bribe". re, in May, 1941, about six menths after the sentencing of Kent, the Y first intimations reached Mrs. Kent that thore had been secrot cables betwoen Winstcn Churchill and Franklin D.Reoosevelt in which Tylor Kont wos a factcr. These intimaticons were given thpfirs. Kent by Rebort Sectt, a newapapermon fermeply assceiatee vith : INGTON POST and new 9 circulation man cn t TTSBURGH GAZETTE. Sect saic, in ef-° foct that the cables had Ge ee conduct cf tho war, “including Plans fcr Anglc-Amarican cccperatids, and specifically, the Lend Lease fermiia, He aise said that premises cf full suppert cf British prepegan- eee 4s Winston Churchill should supersode Prime Minister Chamberlain in cffico, Mr. Scgtt implied that Lenden ond Washingtecn newspapermen generally ac- ‘coptetithe truth cf the stcrics (this was in Moy, 1941), but fear cf ecnsogbhences prevented attaching the Infermaticn to its true source. ee ‘ . ~"K n July, 1941, Mrs, Kent sent a ycung min by the name cf Otis T. | ingce, 1 former classmate of her son and a ppblic relations expert, ‘ ; tc make what inguirics ho could frem the British Embassy as to the ; ‘xiutenca and nature feof allegod surreptitious ecded cables between Chur- . i ,eri21 ani Rocsovelt wkichysho eugpected wore connected with the imprisen- = 4 oster, First Secretary ef the Embassy and Mr. wii hed TO ee “lent cf her sen, Mr, Nos sfotes that in the ccurse cf casual ccnver- iesthaialae wee gee eT ee ae 4