Red Haven

Alfred and Martha Stern, ducking extradition to the U.S. for grand-jury questioning about their activities as Communist spies, were gone from their high-walled, Spanish-colonial retreat in Mexico City (TIME, Sept. 2). But still in Mexico is a thriving colony of wealthy expatriates representing every shade in the Communist spectrum, from parlor pink to Moscow Red.

A gathering place for the colony reportedly is the spacious home of Sterling Dickinson, U.S.-born director of art-conscious San Miguel de Allende's biggest art school. A resident of Mexico for 20-odd years, he keeps open house for Communists and fellow travelers. The leading Redline expatriates:

Frederick Vanderbilt Field, the maverick millionaire who served as a U.S. Communist Party angel for years, was secretary of the Civil Rights Congress bail fund that posted bond for a long procession of U.S. party leaders on trial for Smith Act violations.

Mrs. Anita Boyer Field, Frederick Field's wife, and former wife of McGill University's research chemist Raymond Boyer. Chemist Boyer served 19 months for passing Canadian explosives secrets to the Soviets in 1943-44.

Maurice Halperin, onetime chairman of Boston University's department of Latin American regional studies, who fled to Mexico in 1954 before a scheduled questioning by university authorities. FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover included Halperin's name with that of Harry Dexter White in a list of suspected Communist agents sent to President Truman in 1945; according to ex-Communist Courier Elizabeth Bentley, Halperin gave her secret documents and party dues when he was employed by the OSS.

Albert Maltz, playwright and novelist, convicted in 1950 along with other members of the "Hollywood Ten" for contempt of Congress, after refusing to tell the House Committee on Un-American Activities whether he was a Communist.

Samuel J. Novick, radar-parts manufacturer during World War II, reportedly sponsor of wartime Atom Spy Arthur Adams as an immigrant to the U.S. and backer of Communist causes and front organizations.

On the fringes of the Communist upper-crust drift several hundred fellow U.S. Communists and fellow travelers of lesser rank. Bearded and beardless, they idle away the hours in avant-garde jazz cellars, drink tequila and loaf. But the top-line expatriates live well. Most of them rent comfortable, well-staffed houses in Mexico City or the flower-splashed resort town of Cuernavaca, talk art in stately houses set amid the ancient colonial towers and belfries of San Miguel de Allende. Shying away from publicity, they entertain one another at dinner, avoid noisy nightclubs. They operate businesses (in travel, real estate, even eggs), clip coupons or live on fat inheritances. A few are reportedly involved in genuine cloak-and-dagger plotting under the command of Yuri N. Paparov, who is cultural attache of the suspiciously oversized (200 staff members) Soviet embassy in Mexico City, and reputedly the working boss of all active Communists in Mexico.

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