International: A Question of Loyalties

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Three miles southwest of where the U.N. was celebrating its seventh birthday in splendid new Manhattan quarters, the U.N. was, in effect, put on trial in the U.S. Court House in Foley Square. For the past two weeks, one by one, twelve among the 2,000 Americans employed by the U.N. itself (i.e., not in the U.S. delegation to U.N.) had refused under oath to tell a Senate judiciary subcommittee whether they were or had ever been Communists. All twelve claimed the protection of the self-incrimination clause in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; one even refused to answer when asked if he was currently spying on the U.S. A 13th witness did admit she had been a Communist back in 1935, but added: "I am not apologetic."

Last week a 14th witness appeared under subpoena for what he called "this unpleasant ritual." He was ex-Communist Agent Whittaker Chambers. Had David Zablodowsky, a $14,600-a-year director of U.N. publications, been a member of the Soviet underground in the U.S.? the committee counsel asked. Yes, replied Chambers, Zablodowsky worked in an apparatus that procured forged passports and other papers for Russian agents.

"It Is Possible." Next morning 49-year-old Zablodowsky, onetime editor for prosperous Viking Press, later a State Department employee and an official in the wartime OSS, took the stand. He admitted membership in the Red underground, but denied ever joining the Communist Party. Zablodowsky, who had previously denied Red ties, had a disingenuous explanation this time: "In 1935 I was terribly excited about Hitler and Nazism. It triggered me to action." The Communists were among "the very few people awake to the menace of Hitler" at the time. Had he helped the passport ring? "I did it unknowingly . . . It is possible."

The uncooperative twelve put U.N. Secretary General Trygve Lie in a delicate position. He summarily fired the witness who refused to say whether he was a spy, suspended with pay another who refused to say whether he was now engaging in subversive activity against the U.S., and placed on "compulsory leave" with pay the ten who would not tell whether they were or had been Communist Party members. Then Lie announced that he would "seek urgently" the advice of a panel of "eminent jurists" (selected from among U.N. member countries) on "the issues presented."

Snapped Democratic Senator James O. Eastland of Mississippi, acting chairman of the subcommittee: "I am disappointed at the position taken by Mr. Trygve Lie ... to give these people ... a paid vacation. His action is beyond my comprehension." The U.N.'s Trygve Lie snapped back: "I am taking orderly and legal measures . . . without recourse to lynch law and smear."

Vague Loyalty. The technical definition of a U.N. employee's loyalties—to his country and to the U.N.—is vague. New U.N. employees swear to exercise their function as "international civil servants" in all "loyalty, discretion and conscience." "They are not expected," say staff regulations, "to give up their national sentiments or their political and religious convictions."