CZECHOSLOVAKIA: The Man Between

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Anticipated Confession. That was the last heard from Bohumil Lausman until a monotonous voice came over Radio Prague last week and began a mea culpa: "I voluntarily crossed the state frontiers on Dec. 25, 1953 and put myself at the disposal of the Czechoslovak authorities." Had Lausman returned voluntarily? It was possible that the old illusions had lured him back. But there was also the letter he had written a Dutch friend in mid-December: "If I should be kidnaped, then it is not impossible that after months of torture and maltreatment one will get a statement out of me. Should in a trial I plead guilty and confess, then such a confession is invalid. In such a case the foreign Socialist press should raise the demand that I ... be brought to Paris, London, or Amsterdam and there repeat the confession. If the Czech government refuses to give permission, then this will prove the statement was gained from me by force and maltreatment."