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Anna Louise Strong, longtime devoted follower of the U.S.S.R., arrived at La Guardia Airport last week all bundled up in a heavy fur coat. She had needed it; the Moscow winter and the chill blast of the Kremlin deportation order were enough to freeze anyone. Her reception at La Guardia was chilly too: a gauntlet of 15 solemn New York cops, two FBI men who pinned her with a Federal Grand Jury subpoena, and a pack of 50 reporters. Why, the reporters wanted to know, had the Russians thrown her out after she had plugged passionately for the Red cause for some 30 of her 64 years?

Still trying to follow the line, Anna snapped: "My expulsion may have been caused by the tension and war. hysteria which the American press has done so much to stir up." Tired and testy, she finally shut off discussion: "Nobody in Russia has mistreated me the way you reporters have tonight." But next day, after the special Grand Jury (which is investigating espionage in the U.S.) let her off after only 30 minutes of preliminary questioning, Anna warmed up a little. To reporters, she elaborated:

"In the present disturbed condition in the world, any normal question by a reporter arouses suspicion among lower officials of any government. I was stepping on somebody's toes [in Moscow]. I was making officials mad, [though] I thought I was doing them a favor. All countries have stupid officials and prosecutors who, once they have decided against you, go out to get their man."

Journalist Strong had already talked to a literary agent, and wasn't interested in giving away any more of what she might sell. But State Department officials had a pretty good idea of what had broken up

Anna's love affair with the Kremlin. Always a promoter of the old illusion that Communism and local patriotism can mix, she had applauded Yugoslavia's Tito too freely, and she was suspected of trying to get to China to peddle Titoism to her old friend, Mao Tse-tung. To this Anna answered: "Poppycock." She was already feeling better about being back home: "I feel more . . . comfortable in this country than in any other part of the world. I do not find it the most interesting or exciting country ... I want to go to some country where there is a war."

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