◆ SpookStack

9 g FF Gis, Pr roe’ fi Tolson “ ra lege. + VGlavi 4 i . Nichol (~ $ ; Cae ‘ Rosen_! z : Diplomatic Blues _ — i a Two aspects of the Tydings hearing de- é are } \ serve some attention whije the McCarthy arbo____. 3 charges are being sifted. One is brought to Mohr 7 mind in the Service case, and it is the ques- Tele. Roa tian of great concern to a free press inuills Nease k. te discharge Vis duty of the canting a andy. 1 affairs that the public is entitled to. The (/ caren a other aspect of the hearing is the constraint an ( ; _ that might be put upon foreign service offi- . : } cers at home and abroad in divulging infor- epee trading information in time a mation to foreign officials. good relations. Fear of the future may . ; T hats i vice, make the diplomat constrained, te the hu ' ta now resurrected by Senator McCarthy, is o¢ the gathering of information necessary to _ i. the Amerasia magazine case. It concerned i, diplomacy. In other words, his own poe abstraction _of Government documents and oy ag well as public relations might " * 8 their use by editors of Amerasia. In the ndicapped. These implications of . case of Mr. Service, the grand jury failed to . . lost ' bring in an indictment, and he was released. rrent investigation should not be He was then reinstated in the State Depari- ment with an apology from Secretary Byrnes. Those were the days in mid-1945 ‘before the spy seare. On looking up our 4 own comment at the time, we discovered Ja / ; won Q / / ‘ that our concern, in common with that of aod es a a : other papers, related to Jeaking to “favored ; a journalists.” It was a subjeet much to the A I I ‘ wre in those days, and we urged the State VOL REUORDED . epartment' to permit free and impartial ~ access to all information not involving atili- 75 APR 20 1950 tary security. The various categories of “privileged,” “secret” and “reserved” infor- ee ee mation should be abolished, we said, and the circulation of genuinely confidential infor- mation restricted only to those who could be - Pa implicitly trusted. What we are now afraid of is that the press might find a clamp put Dy upon information to which the public is _ legitimately entitied by State Department . ght. _ oe a? i Times-Hera! officials who have been made overly discreet Wash. Post by continued harassment. The other aspect of the McCarthy accusa- Wash. News tions has been expressed by one or two dip- lomats uneasy about the nature of their functions and the fulfillment of their respon- Wash. Star sibilities. It has hitherto been the practice . to swap official information with the officials 7 N.Y. Mirro f other friendly powers. Bvt in this world ati | vine : if quick change an ally inday might be an seek (le 7 * « 4 dnemy tomorrow. In that event, suspicion 5 re ow . “f tight be cast upon the American® whe-pet ws APR 2 2 iS 5 Aare: in