| Transcript |
SHANGHAI CONSPIRACY
°f Detroit, Smedley's lawyer, appears to have handled a
lumber of "Red" cases.
The persuasive Miss Smedley, however, was to receive
shll more support from highest quarters. On the "Meet the
Press" radio program of the Mutual Broadcasting System,
°n February 27, 1949, no less a personage than the former
Secretary of the Army, Kenneth C. Boyall, said, "the Army
should have run for cover," that it had made a mistake
at>d that the spy release was "an Inadvertence by some
Personnel in the Public Information Division in Wash-
lngton." He added he was not advised in advance that the
report would be published and said it was "released in his
absence."
"hat pressures induced the Secretary to repudiate the
'"tion of his own Department, and, inferentially, a world-
'irnous field commander? Hundreds of photostat records,
*orn affidavits and other juridicial evidence had accumulated in Washington, over the years.
T
* he parallel between Smedley and Major Peress is obvi-
"s- When a Congressional Committee raised this point
'" illoughby) remarked, ". . . Federal officers are at the
0rc>' of their file clerks. The executive presses a desk but-
li.ls
"Ilk,
1,1 '">d calls for a quicky brief of the subject matter. He
no time for extensive personal research. Now Ihe
"own villain enters the piece. What underling wrote a
jj*""Page memorandum on the Smedley case, misleading
'<• Secretary of War? Who kept him in ignorance of the
"h-iice in his own files? Who induced him to make
'"tie and misleading statements on "Meet the Press"?
. H sly some Communist sympathizer who had reason
Protect Miss Smedley.
'tn this unexpected denouncement, it came as no
Pfse that Communists all over the world, as well
S,
-is \ . '""'
"nerican Communist-front organizations, defended
(',"<>. symbolic of their cause. Fundamentally, it was
shiiii
re ,1-
mgerous that responsible government officials were
> in
"ernoc
v*ti
Peeled to take up the cudgels for a woman whose sol
life was to undermine the American conception of
racy. They portrayed Agnes Smedley as an innocent
01 in order to discredit a carefully documented intelli-
r.i]|t'' report. Communist publications the world over
Vast f" tne cause "' Agnes Smedley. Perfect timing, over
« Beographical areas, is an impressive example of the
0, .'Class general staff work and split-second coordination
h'tr.-, "lat'(mal communism. The propaganda work of the
'le "i 'ini' vacillating democracies cannot match this
% precision.
;, ' "ifercntial repudiation of the original report and the
Pai."' ,"'"" publicity in favor of Smedley gave Tokyo
''ten"
Steps were taken to re-examine every documentary
•,, '"HI to institute expert legal research.
tl„. ",v reported in part: "Based upon our ex:
'!»
imination of
""eiinients listed immediately heretofore, it is the
Its,), '"' °f the undersigned that these evidences estab-
'-\|)i Proof that Richard Sorge and his associates were
Si,1( '"''"'' agents lor the Russian Army, and that Agnes
vpjj. ev and Guenther Stein are Communists in mind,
iii„| '"'d practice, and that thev were actively and know-
hi).' ^'""looted with the Sorge spy ring in China and
l);ir'"!- Signed: |. Woodall Greene-'. Member, Maryland
''""'I'll S. Carusi, Member. Connecticut Bar; E. V. A.
*'ls
Fo
'a \i \i ws. March, 1956
de Becker & R. Usami, Member, Middle Temple, London;
Member, Inner Temple, London; International Lawyers,
Tokyo, Japan; Franklin E. N. Warren, Member, Oklahoma
Bar; Member, New Mexico Bar.
Bearing in mind the symbolic importance of the defense
of Agnes Smedley, another champion of secretarial caliber
now entered his plea in defense of Agnes Smedley: Harold
Ickes, Truman's Secretary of the Interior. He had resigned
and published a syndicated column, at the time. He delighted in being known as "the Old Curmudgeon," a phony
phrase-, suggesting rugged, homespun honesty. He orated
". . . Who is this two-starred General, attacking a defenseless woman? No one who knows Miss Smedley would ever
suspect that this courageous and intelligent American citizen has stooped so low as to be a spy for any foreign country — even for her own to which she is so deeply
attached. . ."
JE/vents had a way of answering Ickes and Boyall. The
House Un-American Activities Committee stepped in and
subpoenaed Smedley — only to find that she had skipped
the country, although the FBI had put a clamp on her
passport. She turned up in England to "work on a biography of her friend, General Chu Teh," who was shortly
to appear as Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Armies,
fighting us in North Korea.
When the impatient House Committee applied diplomatic pressure to compel Smedley's return to the States,
for testimony, she died suddenly in London — an astonishing coincidence in timing and an effective means of silencing her forever. Ickes' and Boyall's protegee, that "courageous and intelligent American citizen" then bequeathed
her residuary estate to the same General Chu Teh, disciple
of Lenin, tool of the Kremlin, member of the ruling clique
of Red China, at war with the United Nations in Korea.
Smedley named Chu Teh as "sole heir of royalties due
from published works, L1. S. Government bonds and anything else of value in her estate." Her will ordered her
body cremated and her ashes flown to China, to General
Chu Tell and "there to be laid at rest at any place designated by him or his heirs."
The ashes of Ickes" protegee were buried with highest
Illinois in an expensive marble shrine or sarcophagus, by
the Red Government in Peiping. on May 6, 1950. Telltale
honors for an "American citizen" at a time and date when
American troops were piling up their dead on the dismal
battlefields of Korea.
The "New World Review," published in Peiping, circulated a photograph of Agnes Smedley's shrine. Suggestive
of the incredible geographical range of the Communist
world conspiracy and its proponents, there were several
inclivcluals posing reverently at the shrine of the American traitor: Prof. D. D. Kosamby, head of the Indian
Delegation to the "Preparatory Peace Conference in
Peking" (like Krishna Menem, the indefatigable intriguer
in the- United Nations. Nehru's men are on excellent, fraternal terms with the Bods); Rewi Alley, a citizen of New
Zealand and former head of the Chinese cooperatives;
Li 'fell Oman of the Chinese Peace Committee and, last
but not least, one Dr. John A. Kingsbury, good old John.
with a reverent expression on his face and that unmistakable, non-Communist and rather bourgeois embonpoint.
(Continued on Page 63)
Page 37
V
/
|
