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Show Iii'm m Report to People A man is indebted to his enemies tor many things, but for none so much as the provocation by which ae can set forth his record for his country. G. C, a Sun columnist, quoted a witness in the spy investigation investi-gation as saying he had given the story of the spy ring to Walter Win-ihell Win-ihell in 1941. Mr. G. S. of the Sun wandered on to say that though 'VincheU. reported the story to the .ommander-in-chief, a real news-nan news-nan would have told the public. These are the facts: When Isaao on Levine was talking to me in 1941 he did not know, nor could he le expected to know, that I had jeen a reserve naval intelligence of-'icer of-'icer since' May 5, 1934. (I nave lever been discharged and I have never resigned. I was ordered on Jie inactive list May 5, 1934, but ! got my verbal orders every day). Still less could Mr. Levine be expected ex-pected to know my orders. But I lid, and I followed them. Neither vlr. Levine nor G. S. were in a posi-ion posi-ion to know my orders, much less relieve me of their obligations im ; the matter. 1 Levine did not mention the name of Hiss or Chambers to me. His principal interest was an investigation into the death of General Krivitsky. He did not mention the clinching evidence of an active spy ring, the microfilm, micro-film, for the good reason he I didn't know about it. At that time, Stalin and Hitler had more than a pact. In early 1941 the French were down, London, was burning and the British, after Dunkirk, were fighting from one tnee. Russia, now it can be told, was acting as an outpost for Nazi Intelligence. So much so that when. Sumner Welles warned the Russian, ;mbassy that Hitler would attack j Russia in June, the Russian ambas-lador ambas-lador went straight to the Nazi smbassy and reported Welles' con- j persation to the Nazi ambassador! I Thus, any Russian spy ring in early 1941 was also a Nazi spy ring. I duly reported Levine's state- I ments to the President, who already i tnew something was afoot. The American intelligence services did! j let on it. As late as two years ago, tor example, a dossier on Hiss wast landed to Secretary Byrnes. There is a big difference between an intelligence in-telligence service and a pnlice-lorce, pnlice-lorce, which slipshod reporters, fre-juently fre-juently overlook. Spies are not arrested; ar-rested; they are followed to .uicover in enemy network. The intelligence lervlces call this: "Going up the-ladder." the-ladder." It means locating the head-juarters head-juarters of the spy ring and all itst agents. It frequently results in breaking the enemy's code. If the- enemy has the slightest notice, the-Bgent the-Bgent is flashed that his "cover is. broken" and the enemy shifts to new lines of attack. For a newsman to give notice torn to-rn enemy of his country for the lake of a story may make him a reporter in the eyes of G. S., but to-this to-this reporter he loses the name of American. Frank Knox was a newspaperman news-paperman on a consultant basis when he was secretary of the navy. Surely Mr. G. S. doesn't mean that Secretary Knox should have published the battle orders of the-U. the-U. S. navy, which was certainly a great news story especially for the enemy. The Chicago Tribune was hailed before a federal grand ury on a charge of disclosing to-the to-the Japs by a published story that we had broken their code. Now that Chambers has elected to tell a fuller story, a large number num-ber of men who draw pay as newspapermen news-papermen have become Monday morning quarterbacks on how I should have handled the story. Their first approach is to get the facts right, which they always magnificently mag-nificently ignore, the prerogative, I suppose, of small and unread circulations. cir-culations. The truth is that nobody nad the evidence, though many fact the story, until a few weeks ago. Then Chambers, in defense of himself, him-self, revealed the microfilm. Up to that time. I didn't know if it, Levine lidn't know of it, and neither die Jie Gov't. The inside story is that if Hiss hadn't sued Chambers, it I: doubtful if Chambers would have revealed them. Under a goading examination by Hiss' lawyer. Chambers blew. To the sneering question of "Is that all yon have?" Chambers angrily answered that he had some other evidence and then exploded the microfilm bombshell. That supplied the evidence which made the headline. It's one thing to know a story and another to prove it, and it is libel to call a man a Communist. Botf on the air and in print, this reporter report-er has objected to that silly rule, stating that the blindfold of justice is being twisted into a gag of the free press and going so far as to call it a court license for the fifth column. |