Salt Lake Telegram | 1941-10-11 | Page 4 | A Lesson for the White House

t I 0 A Lesson for the White House P RESIDENT PRESIDENT Ro ROOSEVELT sEVELT and D N B the 1 A German news agency seem to be having a t little trouble Mr Roosevelt through the medium medium me me- of ot a White House statement accuses the the- news agency of distorting for propaganda purposes es a letter which he had had sent to Joe JoeI I Stalin boss of Soviet Russia I According to the D N B version the letter letterI I opened My Dear Friend St Stalin and closed l 4 k- k A 0 With cordial friendship Actually according according according accord accord- ing to the White House the salutation was My Dear Mr Stalin and the conclusion Yours very sincerely The whole thing is of minor importance except for two things First is the question of why the letter was not made public previously by Mr Roosevelt There was nothing wrong with the letter which was delivered to Stalin about 10 days ago by Averell Harriman who headed the U. U S. S delegation delegation delegation dele dele- gation to Moscow It was a rat rather ratIer er foolish move on the part of the president to attempt to keep it secret and thus give German propagandists propagandists propagandists an opportunity to appear furtive furtive furtive fur fur- tive and off-color off which it was not in fact Second is the question of how its contents became known to the Germans Was the leak here hero or in Russia And if it was here what kind of governmental secrecy is is' it that keeps matters a secret from the American public while they are speedily known to foreign governments gov gov- The whole thing focuses public attention again on the ridiculous and futile attempts at censorship and secrecy about what is going on in this country Several somewhat similar cases have been brought to light previously Other departments of government h have ve learned th their ir lesson on the folly of their attempts at secrecy This is a lesson for the White House itself