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\Vardaman Issued ‘Gag’ Order In Amerasia Case, Probe Told Stopped FBI Arrest Of Six, Says Holmes (Continued from First Page) ‘ments stolen from the State de- ‘partment and other federal agencies. Enough Evidence Gathered ‘The FBI took over the case and on May 20 the Justice department) ‘9 and the FBI agreed that enough evidence had been procured to Jusiffy the arrest of the editor, Philip ¢. Jaffe. and five others, Including two State department ‘officials. But on May 31, the Justice de- :partment advised the FBI that }any prosecution was to be held in abeyance until the conclusion ,of the San Francisco conference then drafting a United Nations icherter, Testimony by an FBI lagerit before a House committee, recently revealed, was as follows: 1 “T understand that some of the inen who were connected with the San Francisco conference were of the opinion that a prosecution of this case at that particular time might cause friction at the con- ference and it was felt it should be postponed until a later date. The attorney general was advised of that fact.” Credited to Stale Dept. Siuce all persons connected with | the San Francisco conference were State department officials, led by | Berrvciary Stettinius, this testi- mony Indicated that the State de- partment was responsible for the hold-up order. The Holmes denial appeared to eHminate Alger Hiss, a State de- partment official who was secre- tary eeneral of the San Francisco conference. Hiss is appealing a | + AZ} , jretary at the time of the Amerasia case, which appeared to dispose of Justice department contentions that the FBI “clumsily handled” ibe gathering of evidence, thus im- Pacing w successtul prosexstictr” | JAMES EK. VARDAMAN JE. Named in Probe five-year prison sentence imposed for perjury to conceal the theft of | State department papers. i Pn June 2, Holmes informed President Truman personally of the “hold in abeyance” order from San Francisco. The president im- mediately ordered prosecution of the case and the six persons were arrested June 6, But undercover , pressures again intervened. Charges against four of the de- fendants were dropped and two were fined. . The subcommittee put into its record yesterday a statement from Joseph C. Grew, State undersec- Tolson Ladd. Clegg, Glavin Nichola —— Rosen Tracy. Harbo Belmont Mohr Tale. Nease Gandy 4-26 | cused Giew to Wonder -” Grew stated that he was in- formed by Holmes that six per- sons were involved in a stolen’ documents case. He asked if the FBI believed it had & complete | ‘case and if the Justice depari- ment believed the evidence was sufficient virtually to assure a conviction. He was given an ai- firmative answer on both counts _and acceded to the arrests. | Grew informed the subcommit- ‘tee he thought it extremely‘ lstrange that the “air-tight” case ‘ended with only a guilty plea by Jaffe and a fine of $2,500 and a $500 fine for Emanuel S. Larsen, State department employe, who presented no defense. Grew said he had not asked what persons were involved and, learned their names only after the | arrests had been made. He re- signed from the State depart- ment in August, 1945. while the Amerasia case was still pending. ; Leit wingers boasted they had \“forced” Grew out of the depart: | | atevic—" _ Times-Herald Wash. Fost Wash. News Wash. Star N.Y. Mirror Page