PRISONER MAIL

Mr. CANNON. When you were before us last I think you told us, or intimated, that one of your heaviest jobs was the handling of prisoner-of-war mail. Is that still true?

Mr. PRICE. That is still true, but I expect a very great change in that the moment the European war is over. As a matter of fact, There has already been a change, because while the number of Ger...an prisoners in this country is increasing constantly, there is no nger any mail from this country to our own prisoners in Germany, cause they are all being set free and coming home.

Mr. CANNON. What about mail from German prisoners of war to the German interior?

Mr. PRICE. It continues to be in very high volume.

Mr. CANNON. And they also receive mail from Germany?

Mr. PRICE. They are receiving practically none at the moment. from Germany, because it is not coming out of Germany.

Mr. CANNON. In the early part of the year they did receive mail from Germany?

Mr. PRICE. Yes; in tremendous quantities.

Mr. CANNON. What is the particular value of that service? Is it getting information you secure from your perusal of that mail, r the interchange between prisoners and their own relatives and iates, or is it by the prevention of the dissemination of inforaton which might prove disadvantageous to our arms? Mr. PRICE. I should like to speak about that off the record. ¿Discussion off the record.)

Mr. CANNON. Aside from that prisoner-of-war mail, what are some the other problems at this time?

Mr. PRICE. Mail generally is the largest problem, so far as the enditure of personnel is concerned. There are a considerable der of what censorship lists as dangerous destinations and they I continue to be dangerous destinations after the German war is

We are emphasizing the examination of mail to those places parlarly. That is the biggest expenditure of manpower we have. Mr. CANNON. In what respect does your work in the handling of parse mail differ from your handling of German mail? Mr. PRICE. As to Japanese mail

Mr. CANNON. Is it largely the same problem?

Mr. PRICE. We have very little Japanese mail. We have outgoing the mail of Japanese prisoners. We do not permit anyone -opt prisoners to write to Japan. The amount of mail coming from her direction is negligible: a very small quantity comes out of n. The Japanese mail is really no problem at all. Mr. Lurrow. I would like to make this observation, that the steps

Mr. Price and his associates have taken to liquidate the activity rap dly as it can be liquidated is certainly deserving of commendaand I think the efforts of Mr. Price to reduce the appropriation ha large sum indicates a very high regard for the taxpayer. Mr Price, would you think that when the shooting is over in Gerany you can begin to pull out of the European theater pretty fast?

Mr. PRICE. Well, no. We still have to apply some censorship to German prisoners and see what they are up to. We have in this country in the camps some very highly fanatical Nazis. We want to look at their mail.

Mr. LUDLOW. That would be a relatively small activity compared with the magnitude of your operations you have been carrying on in Europe?

Mr. PRICE. When you say pull out of Germany, we have nothing in Germany.

Mr. LUDLOW. I mean the European theater.

Mr. PRICE. We still have to look at the mail going to certain addresses in Europe that we have known in the past to be addresses of German spies. We still have to look at a great deal of the mail, and as far as radio telegraph or radio telephone is concerned, that is easily intercepted by the enemy. We have to look at that very carefully.

Mr. LUDLOW. Are you assuming that the surrender would not be an entirely valid surrender; that there would be a good deal of underground activity, in all probability?

Mr. PRICE. We would like to do what we can to find out whether there will be any.

Mr. LUDLOW. It is precautionary on your part?

Mr. PRICE. Yes.

Mr. LUDLOW. What would you say as to the freedom of the press? How are we getting through this catacylsm? Are we getting through with the press entirely unhampered in this country?

Mr. PRICE. It would seem so.

Mr. LUDLOW. What about the freedom of the press in other countries?

Mr. PRICE. Of course, I am for that, but I am not in a position to say what progress has been made, because I have not the information.

Mr. LUDLOW. The reestablishment of civilized government in the different countries would naturally be conducive to the liberalization of their press, would it not?

Mr. PRICE. I hope so; yes, sir.

CANCELATION OF CONTRACTS UPON TERMINATION OF HOSTILITIES

Mr. LUDLOW. You spoke about having a number of contracts in existence. In respect to the liquidation of that activity, are there cancelation clauses in those contracts?

Mr. MCKEEVER. All of them except one have cancelation clauses. We are endeavoring to get a cancelation clause in that one. These are 3)and 60-day cancelation clauses.

Mr. CANNON. You referred to one contract in which you did not have a cancelation provision. How does it happen that you have that one exception?

Mr. MCKEEVER. I do not know how that occurred. That goes back to the beginning of censorship. I think Army officers negotiated the lease for the property in Miami. It is a yearly lease, subject to appropriations, and it has no cancelation clause in it. We have an option. for renewal of the lease from year to year, and are now endeavoring to get a renewal with a cancelation clause inserted.

Mr. CANNON. But the Government would be under no obligation under that contract in the event that Congress failed to provide an appropriation for that purpose?

Mr. MCKEEVER. I think that it would not.

Mr. CANNON. It would be automatically canceled without a charge against the Federal Government?

Mr. MCKEEVER. I think so.

But we do need that space for an unknown portion of the next year, or perhaps the entire year. There is no other space available in Miami.

Mr. CANNON. Under the terms of the contract when does the lease expire?

Mr. MCKEEVER. On June 30.

Mr. CANNON. Of what year?

Mr. MCKEEVER. Of this year, June 30, 1945. It expires then, but we have the option of renewal for another year.

Mr. CANNON. That is your option; they have no control over it? Mr. MCKEEVER. That is right.

Mr. LUDLOW. What are the terms of your standardized cancelation clause? How quickly can you get out?

Mr. MCKEEVER. Most of our leases have 30-day cancelation clauses. There are some leases with 60-day cancelation clauses, but this particular one has no cancelation clause.

Mr. CANNON. But do you have to pay the lessor anything? How do you get out of your contract?

Mr. MCKEEVER. It is a standard contract, similar to those entered into by the Public Buildings Administration. We give them a written 30- or 60-day notice as required by the lease.

There is a provision that if the Government makes alterations, we have to restore the premises to the original condition, less wear and tear. In some cases we can avoid that by getting the landlord to waive it.

Mr. LUDLOW. Have you in your censorship seen any evidence of sabotage as a result of your examination of the mail? Have you had many glaring instances of that kind?

Mr. PRICE. Of sabotage?

Mr. LUDLOW. Planned sabotage.

Mr. PRICE. No, we have had very few references to that in the

mail.

COOPERATION OF THE PRESS IN DISSEMINATION OF NEWS

Mr. SNYDER. Mr. Price, the over-all picture since since you have taken charge of this business 3 years ago would lead me to think that you had pretty well found 100-percent cooperation on the part of the press in carrying out the wishes as to what should be released and hat should not be released.

Mr. PRICE. That is true of the press and also of the broadcasters. Mr. SNYDER. The same, you say, is true of radio?

Mr. PRICE. Yes, sir.

Mr. SNYDER. Both of those institutions have devoted a lot of space. and time in carrying out the wishes of the Government, through you as its agent, in giving to the American people proper messages?

Mr. PRICE. Yes. What we have been more interested in is that they have left out of the papers and off the air literally thousands of news

dispatches which would have been printed in normal times, disclosing military information.

Mr. SNYDER. I suppose sometimes they were unconscious of the fact that the news had gone into the pressroom or to the radio station?

Mr. PRICE. Yes. In the beginning there was a great lack of information on that subject, but as time has gone on I think editors and broadcasters are now quite alert to the necessity of not disclosing military information.

Mr. SNYDER. And they themselves can discriminate much better now as to what is military information and what is not?

Mr. PRICE. That is true.

Mr. SNYDER. And you find very few, I would imagine, if any. throughout the Nation, in charge of a paper or magazine or radio broadcasting station, who would deliberately give out such news?

Mr. PRICE. I think that is absolutely true. Of course, it is done inadvertently. They make mistakes, the same as anybody else; and I have been surprised that they have not made more, with their manpower situation the way it is. But even those instances have bee comparatively few.

CENSORSHIP IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES

Mr. SNYDER. I think I understood you to say that the Germa prisoners here have Hitlerism so instilled in them that they woul put stuff out if it was not censored. How about a lot of people w have not been taken prisoner in Germany, the underground people of Hitler? There are some few highly trained Nazis who, underground, would like to carry on their communications with Sout America, Argentina, or some other place where they have undergroun centers. What about them?

Mr. PRICE. We will do what we can to intercept those communica tions and find out who those people are. As far as censorship insi Germany is concerned, we will have nothing to do with that. It w be military responsibility entirely.

Mr. SNYDER. Whenever these nations start in Germany to take over affairs, to supervise them, you will move out?

Mr. PRICE. We are not in Germany at all.

Mr. SNYDER. You will not move in, in other words?

Mr. PRICE. That is true. General Eisenhower's command, and t Russians, and later on the Allied Control Commission, will have th responsibility for censorship in Germany. We have no connection with it except to cooperate with them.

Mr. SNYDER. Thank you.

Mr. RABAUT. You say you are not going into Germany. Did y go into France?

Mr. PRICE. NO. The French have a censorship organization of the own which operates under the direction of General Eisenhower's he quarters. We have liaison with that organization; that is all. W exchange information with them.

Mr. RABAUT. Are you going to the Philippines?

Mr. PRICE. No, sir. That is General MacArthur's operation e tirely.

(Discussion off the record.)

SCREENING OF PERSONNEL

Mr. LUDLOW. Your personnel is very carefully screened, is it not? Mr. PRICE. AS carefully as the machinery exists for it. We asked the F. B. I. in the beginning to investigate every person that worked for us, but they could not do it; they did not have the manpower. The Civil Service Commission does make an investigation and certifies to each person. I have not had a single instance where I had any convincing proof of disloyalty. It is a case where many loose charges have been made, but I have not found any disloyalty.

(Discussion off the record.)

Mr. TABER. Perhaps the most outstanding case of censorship in the last couple of years has been the taking of a certain gentleman ff the air who wanted to deliver some facts about the reciprocal trade agreements. He had his time bought and paid for, and it was canled as soon as they saw his speech, which was a proper speech and which was later delivered in full before the Ways and Means Committee. I am wondering if your office in any way had anything to do with that operation.

Mr. PRICE. I have never heard of it. I would like to know more about the case.

Mr. RABAUT. What case is it?

Mr. TABER. It was the head of the Hamilton Watch Co. We are og to hear a lot more of that. The Federal Communications Comission did it absolutely, and it is perhaps the most outstanding case of orship that I know of.

Mr. PRICE. I had not heard of it. If he was talking only about reprocal trade agreements and was not dealing in military informaon in any way, I am certain that our office had nothing to do with I would like to know more about it.

Mr. TABER. I do not know that your office had anything to do with .. I know it was done.

Discussion off the record.)

SALARIES AND EXPENSES

Mr. CANNON. We will put into the record at this point your re- page 1 with reference to salaries and expenses, Office of Cenrip. That is a revision in accordance with a new estimate which has recently come to us.