COMMUNISTS: Stay at Home

When Artist Rockwell Kent went to Europe last spring, he hustled off to Moscow to speak his mind about the U.S., as co-delegate of something called the Peace Partisans. The U.S. Government, he said, "is not representative of me." Back at his home at Au Sable Forks, N.Y., Russophile Kent dashed off some paintings, but soon got the call to go abroad again, this time to be the only American on a Communist-backed art jury to meet in Prague this month.

Last week the State Department changed his plans. On the ground that he had misused his passport, DOS voided it (State took the same action against Paul Robeson a fortnight ago). Kent thought this was a dirty trick to play "on a man who was only working for peace," and added, "Anything that the Communists say about peace sounds good to me."