Blockade by Subpoena

When Joe McCarthy called a press conference at the end of the week, reporters fully expected to get a new McCarthy blast on an old subject, possibly the Bohlen fight. But they soon discovered that Joe had raised his sights, and was now busy running his own little Department of State.

All chuckles and flourishes, McCarthy announced that his Senate investigating subcommitee had just negotiated an agreement with the Greek owners of 242 merchant ships. The shipowners, said Joe, promised that their ships would no longer carry any cargoes to China and other Communist ports in the Far East. He thought the agreement would "have some of the effect of a naval blockade." Because of the "extremely delicate" nature of the agreement, McCarthy explained, his staff had negotiated with the Greeks in secret, not even informing the Secretary of State or the President, who normally have the responsibility for such agreements.

Wisconsin's junior Senator got into the blockade business by a roundabout way. His subcommittee is investigating the use of surplus U.S. merchant ships turned over to other countries. The State Department, according to McCarthy, had tried and failed to get agreements stopping shipments to Red China. Said McCarthy: "No one had ever contacted the owners of the ships before. Negotiations had always been with the Greek government."

A study of the facts soon showed that Joe McCarthy's blockade was as phony as it was irregular. A whole series of recent moves by the governments of the U.S., Great Britain, France, Greece and other countries practically prohibit their ships from trading with Communist China. Just last week, after long negotiations with the U.S., the Greek government decreed that Greek-flag ships will not sail to Communist Chinese ports.

Equally important, the State Department recently negotiated an agreement under which Great Britain and France pledge that they will not allow Greek or other ships to take on fuel and supplies or even touch at their ports while hauling strategic materials to China. McCarthy knew all this.

There were sharp differences of opinion on whether McCarthy had promised the shipowners anything in return for their pledge. McCarthy said he hadn't. But a member of the subcommittee, South Dakota's Republican Karl Mundt, said the subcommittee had promised not to continue "raking up stuff" about the shipowners' past deals with Communist countries.

This week Mutual Security Director Harold E. Stassen appeared before the McCarthy subcommittee as it began its ship investigations. Before the television cameras, Stassen looked McCarthy squarely in the eye and told him what effect the blockade by subpoena had on U.S. efforts to thwart trade with Communist countries. Said Stassen: "You are in effect undermining and are harmful to our objective."

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