Lifting the Welcome Mat

The weekly National Guardian (circ. 47,000), though it follows the Communist Party line almost as faithfully as the Communist Daily Worker, claims to be a "progressive weekly affiliated with no political party." Started in 1948, the Guardian parrots the Communist charges of germ warfare in Korea, consistently berates U.S. "imperialist" expansion, runs special dispatches from Communist correspondents in North Korea, and has even printed a list of prisoners of war in Korea (TIME, May 21, 1951) that was available only to the world Communist press.

Fortnight ago, Guardian Editor Cedric Belfrage, 48, a British subject who has lived in the U.S. for most of the last 16 years, was summoned before Congressman Velde's Un-American Activities Committee. The committee wanted to know about a job Belfrage had held after World War II, working in Germany for the British under U.S. military authorities as press control officer, licensing new German newspapers. Had Belfrage. asked the committee, given out licenses to Communists? On the grounds of possible "self-incrimination," Belfrage refused to say anything about his job in Germany.

When the committee asked him about a charge in a book by former Communist Spy Elizabeth Bentley that Belfrage had been a spy himself in 1943, Belfrage again refused to answer. As soon as Republican Congressman Bernard W. Kearney heard his testimony, he demanded that the Immigration Department, which had already begun looking into Belfrage's record, take steps to deport him.

Last week Editor Belfrage appeared before Joe McCarthy's Senate Investigating Subcommittee along with the Guardian's executive editor, Allen James Aronson. This time the committee asked Belfrage directly whether 1) he was or had ever been a Communist, and 2) he had engaged in espionage against the U.S.

Once again Belfrage refused to answer, pleading the charge of selfincrimination.

Executive Editor Aronson, who had also worked in Germany licensing news papers with Belfrage, was only slightly more talkative: he admitted that some Communists did get licenses to start pa pers with the aid of U.S. Government cash. But beyond that, Aronson would not talk; he flatly refused to discuss his present job or to say whether he was ever a Communist.

At week's end the Immigration authori ties swung into action. They picked up Belfrage, charged that he was an alien engaged in Communist activity in the U.S., and took him to Ellis Island to await deportation under the McCarran Act.

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