The Squeeze

"I love criticism," General Douglas MacArthur told Newsweek's Foreign Affairs Editor Harry Kern last spring. Chatting with the General during a visit to Tokyo, Kern brought up a critical story that Newsweek Correspondent Compton Pakenham had sent about the occupation. MacArthur, who had issued a rebuttal to the story, made no complaint to Kern.

But last week Newsweek was caught in General MacArthur's squeeze on correspondents in Japan (TIME, Feb. 2). Pakenham had gone to the U.S. on leave last summer, and MacArthur had personally refused to let him return. Newsweek cabled a final protest: "This refusal to accredit Pakenham is a very grave infringement on rights of the press. . . . We are forced to conclude your decision is motivated by the fact that articles published in Newsweek reported criticisms. . . ."

This week even a photographer, Horace Bristol, got caught in the squeeze. Assigned by FORTUNE to make a short trip to Singapore, Bristol asked MacArthur's headquarters for a round-trip travel permit. Public Relations Officer Frayne Baker replied in a handout to all correspondents, written as an open letter to Bristol. Said Baker: Bristol's family would have to give up its quarters if he left. Orally, Baker told Bristol he could get only a one-way permit, and would have to apply for accreditation to Japan all over again. Baker suggested "that some other person be selected [by FORTUNE] to cover the assignment." In short, Tokyo, the center for Far Eastern coverage, was being turned into a coop.

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