Detained

Last year James Russel ("Jimmy") Young, in charge of Hearst's International News Service bureau in Tokyo, lectured in the U. S. Said he: "[a foreign correspondent] should have the ability to meet all kinds of people and keep their confidence at all times. If you don't like the country you're in, just remember that nobody in the country invited you to come there anyhow. ..." Last week Jimmy had his own words to chew on, for he had lost the confidence of Japan's police: Jimmy Young was under arrest.

He had just returned to Tokyo from a tour of China, where he had cabled a series of six stories on the progress of Japan's undeclared war. Wrote Jimmy Young from Hong Kong: "Japan's vital war strength is waning. ... I have been amazed to find how little Japanese leaders in Tokyo know of the Chinese spirit and determination. In the mountain regions the Japanese are on the defensive." Of bustling Chungking, China's new capital, he declared: "It affords an amazing contrast to a dull Tokyo and the latter's burdened, bureaucratic methods."

Back in Tokyo, Correspondent Young addressed the American Club, told Japanese businessmen about his travels in China, tried to file a follow-up story on his tour. One morning to his suite in the Imperial Hotel came a squad of busy little plain-clothes policemen. They ransacked the Young apartment, carted off armloads of letters, notes, pictures and Jimmy, locked him in a cell.

First thing Jimmy's wife Marjorie did was what any good newspapergirl would do: she cabled I. N. S. the story of Jimmy's arrest. Said she, with only a trace of the indignant wife: "Police firmly decline to give any reason for Young's arrest. . . . Even pajamas are not permitted to reach him."

Next day from Washington Secretary of State Cordell Hull dispatched a cable to Ambassador Joseph Clark Grew, asked him to investigate, do what he could to spring Marjorie's husband. Meantime Jimmy caught cold, was moved to more comfortable quarters, allowed to see his wife. Japanese officials said they had detained Jimmy for questioning, refused bail, refused to say what the charges were against him. At week's end Jimmy Young was still in clink.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.