HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1950-01-05, Page 3Heart. R,end ng, Stories Of
Happenings Behind Iron Curtain
i
one ui the uant heart -tendines
stories retouch hunt 11011h14 the Iron
A-'nrtnitt i5 Om pliant of those seek•
Int; to g''t net, In this artily h:d-
uumtd Stet ens vett ran \Ioscoe
.orreslrondeut of The Christian
Science 9ltntitnr now ls'fitiug troll
Berlin—deseril,es the sad ra+r of
the Russi;w-Lora wunu•n win
ied foreigners and o ere denied the
right to leave their youutry with-
their
iththeir husbands.
'\ sauteed \iitsculr 1tlIt•rth ce ru,-
certts Ivan Petrovich. Who is sent
abroad un "kalcmMulirorka" IoClk
'vial bus -Mess assignment 1. .1'0nt11
\\'ar.aw, his first stop, he wires tlie.
home office: "(mug live Poland, free
and independent." Next, from.
Prague, he wares "Lung live
Czechoslovakia, free tied iodei 'n -
dent!"
The cables are repeated in the
SUMO vein as Petrovich journey. to
Romania, Bulgaria,. I.1iiugerv, anc1
other satellite countries, 'Thee, after
a period of silence, conies a message
from Styiizerl:tad that reads: "Lone
live Petrovich, fire and inrlepcn.
drnt1' 'haft's the last Moscow hears
of this particular frau, Remelting to
the anecdote.
rO Soviet elves of foreigners, try •
ing for years fo join their hushieads
abroad, to husbands straggling to
free wives and children whom the
Soviets claim, this story has tragic
poignancy beyond all humor, '1'o
them the Iron Curtain is no abstract
Clulrchillian metaphor, but some-
thing very hard and impenetrable.
Let the record tell the story:. it
includes the names of some 350
Soviet wives of American citizens
who have sought perntissiou to leave
the country in the past nine years.
Of these, 15 women married former
members of the American Embassy
staff in Moscow. Ninety-seven of
the others are wives of t'nited
States veterans:
Apart from the embassy eases.
the great majority are from former
eastern Poland, ;he Baltic states.
Ruthenia, ur Bessarabia, and were
married before 1939—that is to say,
before these territories were annex-
ed by the Soviets and Soviet citizen-
ship automatically were conferred
of all the inhabitants,
Ae the Stylet Union never has
admitted the right of expatriation.
the rule is that Soviet citizens are
permitted to go abroad only in the
interests of the government. .Per-
sonal reasons, however compelling.
cut no ice with the MVD tseeret
polite t officials who pass on exit
visa, applications.
Nevertheless, up until a few years
ago one or two Soviet wives of
American citizens were let ottt every
year. Balt since August, 1940, even
this tiny trickle has been cut off.
111 another move -in this direction,
o1 Feb. 15, 1941. the Soviet Gov-
ernment issued a decree prohibiting'
Soviet citizens from marrying for-
eigners, This grotesque attempt lo
legislate affairs of the heart 0 not
something the Soviet leaders are
proud of or care to advertise, for the
announcement was buried in the
columns of the Official Journal of
the Supreme Soviet, something few
persons ever read.
To my knowledge, the decree
never has been published or re-
ferred to in the Soviet press at large,
When I mentioned it to Russians
their first reaction was one of utter
incredulity. When correspondents
tried 10 scud the story abroad it was
Milled by the censor.
\\that makes this law especially
brutal is the apparent intent to ap-
ply it reu'oactivcly,
It works like this. When a wife
who has been waiting years for an
exit visa goes round to the visa
department for a routine inquiry
op the status of her application she
is received by a "sympathetic" offi-
cial, who, across the baize green
desk top where her file folder lies
open. offers her "fatherly" advice:
.'Are you really quite sure you
want to go to America, citizeness?"
he inquires solicitously, "especially
after the new* from there? Why,
with the crisis coming 00, your hus-
band may lose his job any day and
you yourself be out on the street,
starving."
After a pause to let this dire warn-
ing sink in. he adds; "Besides, you
as a Russian will be under suspi-
cion everywhere. The Un-American
Activities Committee will be after
you. You won't have a moment's
peace, And remember, if you go,
it's for good. Never again can you
set foot on your homeland,"
Another pause, during which the
official thumbs through her file.
When he resumes talking, his kind-
ly tone has steeled slightly: "Cit-
izeness, it may take a long time to
get your exit permit—a long time."
(Outright t•e.usals are not in ac-
cord with usual Soviet practice,)
Then, in a more persuasive note:
"You are young, attractive, Is it
really worth wasting the best years
of your life for the sake of a for-
eigner? Is he really worth it?What's
wrong with aur Soviet fellows?
Look around youl"
Nest, with a wrathful crescendo
rising to thundering climax: "I
cannot understand how you, who
claim to be a loyal Soviet citizen,
can be prepared to renounce your
birthright, to desert the socialist
motherland that raised and educated
you, for an American!"
Ii, at this point, the victim shows
obvious signs of meatal angu:sh, the
inquisitor suddenly relents: "Here.
here. Citizeness. I did not wish to
hurt your feelings. I simply was
trying to help you with sound ad-
vice—not as an official but as an
older fellow countryman. Go home
—think it over."
, s
At bottle, the chances are that if
the wife happens to live with her
- parents, and likely as not in the
sante room, she is the target of
constant nagging. Iler family
choruses:
It's all very well 0 you choose
to wreck your own life and queer
yourself. But you've no right to
ruin our lives. By getting yourself
mixed up with foreigners, you're '
brought us all raider observation—
you'll get is all into trouble. It's
time to put an end to it, Forget
about that Anterica. You'll never
set, 1t anyway,"
.Possibly, she and her family will
also he needled in some way by the
!rouse. manager -.. registration for-
malities.
Few persons hare the moral stam-
ina to resist such browbeating M -
definitely. ,Sooner or later, all but
the. most steadfast wives have "io1-
mitatily" broken down and filed for
divorce. In such cases, the stringent
Soviet divorce laws suddenly are
relaxed, A process that usually takes
many tnonilts is completed in *.few
days. The requirement that both
Parties ;oust appear before the court
is summarily waived.
'1'o drown her humiliation, the
wife also .is "persuaded" to write a
letter to Yraeeda or Izvestie public-
ly repudiating her husbaid, de-
nouuciug his country in the ap-
proved scanner and voicing her
"wish" to remain to cite beloved
Soviet hotuelaitd.
Things ingo Hare nut gone well with
the few girls who stubbornly have
clung to their hearts' desire: There
was the Soviet wife of a certain
American foreign service officer.
Having tried but failed to get a Sov-
iet exit visa for her and their small
child. he had to leave upc.n ternliva-
tine. of his Moscow assignment.
Six months later the hoose scan.
ager- -a profession which ill Russia
ine!udes the duties of police inior-
'sting This One Out—Demonstrating something new in water
skiing, .Butt Let oh, mounted on itis favorite shah' ovor a pair of
Water skis, goes skimming over the water. Bud Lao promisvcl
Ilti try a rocking chair lashed on two sharks for Ma next: demon-
. awitioitt,
It
i
4.
Just Plain Pooped—For his alertness in spotting the human interest qualities in this tecite and
for his skill in following' through with the camera, Rudolph Vetter, photographer, was awarded
a 525 prize. 'l'lte attitude of the dozing damsel, 7 -mynah -old Sharon Hart, shows how completely
tuckered out she was after an exciting all -day tom of the Fait' and livestock Show-.
TheS
ile That Convicts
By Louise Lee Outlaw
Ou and on droned the voice of
the prosecutor. Above him, on ole
bench, fie judge seemed half asleep
eyes drooping wearily. At an oaken
ta.ble, tile defense attorney, a small,
stringy man, slouched beside the
defendant. In the jury bot, the
jury shifted restlessly and coughed
and shifted again.
It was the last clay of the trial,
and they were all tired, tired of the
volumes of words that had been
poured into the record, tired of the
mountains of evidence that weighed
on; their minds, and yet receded
whenever they tried to pluck from
the mountain one clear fact.
Only furor Number Five, a
woman, looked attentive, She sat
upright. shoulders independent of
the s'raight-backed chair, From a
distance of twenty feet she looked
young. From a distance of ten feet
she looked almost young. Site was
dressed in the relentless, gloomy
perfection 01 the prosperous busi-
ness omen, Periodically her eyes
shifted trout the orosecmtor and
gaged at idly at the defendant,
Juror Number Five was firs,
Edith Bolton. Site was a Madison
Avenue interior decorator. The de-
fense mimetic, knew those things
about her, and felt he knew many
tnore. As the prosecutor rumbled
01, the defense attorney turned to
the den'endmit and whispered, "Re-
meilher what T told you ---keep
smiling at Number Five."
The defendant's bread slhoulders
moved irritably.
"Okay." The defense attorney
drew in a hoarse breath, "But re-
member—it isn't enough that we
know you're innocent. She's got
to know it, too. 1 told you. the
jury's going to listen to her. You'd
better smile. boy,"
The defendant. charged with
first-degree nttn'tler, glanced at
Juror Number Five, Painfully, he
lilted bis lips.
Edith Bolton caught the smile
and was thoroughly • cotlselous of
what had prompted it
A bribe, she thought. Oh, he', a
altrt'trd out,.
titer---vante to the flat she shared
with her parents and announced she
no longer could be registeferl.there
and nutst move out inmtedia Lely.
\\Ite1, she pleaded that she had no-
where to go, the house manager
sneered: "I'm to the :\nlerican.:
they'll look after you,"
tihe lea, glee, lodging and a job
HS hu,.ekeeper al an embassy billet,
One day a week later site failed to
return iroml a trip to the market,
and has not beeit.l.eard from since,
7.'Ite cmetnmtary diplomatic represen-
tations to the Foreign Ministry have
produced the rn ennary silence.
\\ lyes of Americans and .Britons
are by no means -the only vietiuts
of the no exit -visa policy. The ease
of the sou of the former Chilean am-
bassador in Rtosi•m' was brought
before the United Nations. Another
,*t5* involved the Rutetsa wife of
*Pot Greek ambassador. Ira moldier
itsstnnte did ambassadorial rank
early t.' ,•'lr, ,.- i10 the visa depart-
ment.
J • a ER
She turned quickly back to the
garrulous prosecutor, tried to listen
to him, tried to wriggle away front
the memory of the smile. But the
smile persisted, hung before her in
the air --the full, first lips, curling
a little at the edges, curling sweetly
like a girl's
('heater's lips, liars lips. jimmy's
lips. -
Hitt site mustn't let herself fie
off; site must be fair. She had al-
ways been fair. It wasn't the de-
fendant's fault that he looked like
Jimmy. ft had Nothing to do with
the case. She would base !ter deci-
sion ou factual evidence, cotil,
through the tua"e of circumstances.
pluck ottt the telling fact . .
Site felt her eyes casing back
to the defendant at the oaken table,
twelve feet from v: here she sat.
Once store she saw the thick eye-
lashes. the high. unlined forehead,
the disarming, wavy hair. Smooth«
fared. pretty -faced, full of smiles.
`Che Lind, who smiled from the
cradle up. smiled and got what he
wanted, smiled and plundered .
1?diti. Bolton jerked her shoul-
ders. snapped off the thought. it
was Ler business to listen to the
prosecutor --to listen hard. with
judicial ears,
"And the State has shown," the
prosecutor said, "that the defend-
ant robbed and caused the death
of a man who had befriended blur
--a 111011 alto. out of the goodness
of Itis heart. had given hint a de-
cent job, started :tint nu a car-
eer
les, that 1' as the war it worked.
You rook the smiling charmer lit.
you gave hint ererythimg in ex.
change for nothing, You bought his
clothes, ton fed hint, you put his
name on your shop window:
'James and Edith Bolton, Decora-
tors, New York and Miami," Yott
made up papers --";hetes and Edith
Bolton. Associates --and in a
breath's time yon signed away half
the business you'll se. rated to build.
Each week yott wrote a check for
hitt, his share of the profits, the
Share for which he never worked,
"\\'hat do 1 know about this fancy -
pants business?" Smiling, smiling,
pocketing the cited. -
Bnt that was tinmtt. Tivat had
nothing to do with the defendant.
She'd have to clear Iter mind, keep
it cleat) ami open. I'r'til".� this• ::tel,
nuc by nntl ..
. Part Numbry clue. I'he• defend-
ant had been it the Artily tot timee
years: lie was a veteran of North
Africa and :\Mo. f t.y to imagine
hitt it uniform, ribbons on his
chest. 1, 'r.eas yap cc,r•1ty over his
forehead, over *lie dipping black
hair . jimmy I.ad hal ribbons,
too. and a jtnutr Set to his cap. I
aunt he had smiled at her over the
heads of the pretty swung host-
esses at tate l'atleeu.\ltd later
that night. they had talkers and
talked. 51111 she Karl been faint with j
delight when he tunohed her
lint the defendant. She had to
Think of the der'endtwt Fact Num..
Flet 1\ro. lite defendant had been
hotoal,ly discharged urns the If
Army. 1 -Le :tad gotten a ,fol, with a 1
clothing mannfartnrer. :at forty-five
dollars a week: Forty-five dollar*
wasn't much to live on . .
Jimmy had spent almost as stook
oat a single shirt. "Fort ' dollars
for one shirt!" She had stared at
'hint, waiting int• the explanation
that didn't come. just tate smile,
the hand on bee shoulder, weaken-
ing her. "What's thine is yours,
baby:" Ile haat said, "and vice versa
right? For better or for worse .
Fart Number 'Three: The defend-
ant had a wife and child. Forty-
. five dollars a week wasn't amok
for a wile and child. A coat for ttie
vibe, the defendant had said, a
woollen coat to keep her warns.
But itis employer had caught hits
in the stockroom, the stolen goat
over his arm. They struggled, the
prosecutor said. The employer's
gun went oft. Two hours later, the
employer died at Bellevue Hospital,
But the defense had a different
story, There had been no struggle,
the defense claimed. The defendant
had started to rte from lite stock-
room. The employer pursued hint.
gun 0 hatd. At the bottom of
the stairs, tate defendant turned,
said, "Okay --1 give up," but it was
too late thee, The employer had
tripped --rinse tumbling down the
stairs, attd his gttu went oft,
'Who could prove the defendant
hadn't wrestled with the scan? Who
could prove the defendant bad in-
tended to give himself up? Thera
were no witnesses,
And the story about the coat —
a coat for his wife. Titan was .a
shrewd excuse; designed to snake
the jurors' heart swell with pity.
The innocent, 531101e.d fare, the
dangling forelock. "1 wanted a
warm winter coat for my wife . , ."
They knew how to find excuses,
the smilers. With Jimmy it had
been his mother. V1lten the etheck-
img account was overdrawn, it had
been for his Mother. tW''ltett he got
a bank loan he could never pay
hac1., it bad been for his mother.
110 ntotlter--who was glint -waisted
and blonde and twenty-two. What
did he give her now? Whom was
he robbing; nti' for his mother?
"The defendant has a clean ree-
otd.". the defense had said. 0xcel-
lent chloral ter, the Artily records
had claimed. a, fine hay. the clear-
atter witmessec ilad added. Devoted
to his wife. the defendant's neigh-
bors sad agreed. -
But chat did neighbors know?
"Yon and Jimmy make such a
sweet couple," her friend, had said
sit otter --iter older friends, that is.
1 her were the ones he atidei't smile
01, the one, who rotlldm'f possibil
1.1) 1- the tight, site spent li.t.'ning
to Ili, li.tli flippanries . . . and
vl ors1 . th,• ,, : r. �, ..pen!
alone ,
But she Lad 10 Barn 1,, t1.e pto-
se•cnt 1. The pru•e1.11101'5 voice was
high, indignant. as if lie hum she
IN as slipping away front hint. Edith
Bono straightened. dntilnlly hast-
ened her ryes ,n his unshed Ve-
hement fart.
''0'e h:,y' „sly t.it,' 1 •Irndauf'e
w ord." 111, prosecutor .sill. "\\''e -
have all, tine deiendatll's word
the word 01 an admitted thief
against the tett' fa'lgtblc evidence
of death. flow nutrit eau you trust
i
e
1 word 01 I A 111'1 }'
, u N u t t
unld
seal from an employer who l,ad
been kind to Ilio, exceedingly 5 n
arous to him
Edith Bolton glanced pax: the
*Mur ,001i t'ot ,;, ,t 1',
at,1"
mot -;be tier i1 d1111. 't•
checrla a'ri•, e 0:
101e1 w t tt ±�, al".tt.he.i, a •t !i
• ;elutant. ou,t al raid
v,^:rr,
"1.1',L W11,1111.4," ItI liOt had
)jarei. "`i :,et llt%i` a alt 1., f'.1(.' •11•
Fright. ',.;u 'let lout Coe:.. i•,:•.t q't
o, :',r high hoi se 0sr Bette o.
f>r '',11t5 0. 1•,11 1(101 N . .
The •aefelt'L•mt's wife 1"t1•• ;1t01 Fg'
at the defendant Edith 110110o saes
the unmans v.or:atipt=in,y, t.11litq.
e4aa,.
k0 outeet had always; lotrl.e,i Matt
way at Jintauy.:Everryyw,itere, always.
The t'u5tomere in her own shop..
The 'trhat, stupid assistant decors-
tor. The sagging. at/eel...Mtn rut;
buyer ---even the seventectt-yeat'e
old stock girl with the hanging
slip, the run -dawn 'heeler .Richt or
poor, rheumatic or infantile. ti.ey
all looked at Jimmy.
But slue bad to otoy, straying,
If.ditrh Bolton told borsch sternly.
She mustn't think of Jimmy itt
the back at the shop, the stoat
girl in his arcus. Slee, ntusu't think
of 01 0(11 mg now but this trial.
:('here was a decision to make --
there was no time left for debat-
ing or wondering. In five or ten
minutes the prosecutor would end
his summation. The jurors world
retire. They would listen to her,
because she was the strongest. She
wasn't tired at all. They complained
of the treat: she didn't even feet
it . .
Determiudeclly, she leaned for-
ward, surveyed the courtroom. Site
glattred at the judge, at the droop-
ing tipstaff in the corner. Her eyes
travelled to the defendant, and thea
to the table with its pile of State'*
evidence, Once again, she checked
off each article, weighted its sig-
nificance. The tagged, greasy. gust
. , the fingerprint charts which
proved nothing . the coat. The
coat for his wife.
It was a sturdy, coar.,e-gra;med
wool. She knew fabrics. could ap •
praise their value to the dollar,
Thirty-five dollars. retail, Com-
pletely alyleless, a tevoltie.g ectlnr.
She had aleays hated fire em.eine -
red...
Site stared at the coat -
moment, and then, with a sweep•
ing, victorious feeling she couldn't
explain, site looked at the de:end-
amt's wife. The w'O111011 !tad long,
frizzed hail --orange red.
BO lie wouldn't do that! Ilex
mind closed its on the Ileum1:1,
clamped around it. He woult;,,'t
give a redhead a red coal! Not
the defendant --he'd know btoter. -
than that. Even 0 be were stealing,
even if he were pressed for time,
he wouldn't pick a red coat for a
redhead. He'd know better ---hit
kind always did. There might, he
some men win woulde't know --
bat not rhe defendant, lied know=.
He'd knoav, her mind insisted. Von
could tell by looking at his fare,
at the fickle. thick -lashed eyes, the
quick. jaunty smile. He'd be just
the kind who is mild know about
women's clothes, the way he knew
about women, Site was stare of it.
He'd be the hind who world be
proud of his taste, arrogant about
it. Like jimmy
k coat for my wife. Oit, he head
heeu shrewd, she defendant. Ile
had almost convinced her. But the
coat hadn't been for - his wile at
alt The fire -engine red coat had
beat for some other womam
sonteoue younger. slimmer waisted,
someone blonde
i.iar. Liar from beginning; to
ant
1laving made tip her milli', Edith
Bolton didn't borhar to listen to
the final words of bite ptoseuuot.
She sat back in her dhair, feeling
hglit. and easy. And not at all hitter,
she told herself --not al all like a
woman who had rereiyed her final
div„err 'le. gee
!el the n:,,rrin:
Weapon Wedding — to
1lerriuh. let, a brute of o111' ti;tr,
charged that her liusltaild,
11- 1 1
ors, r
u
. n i
•
a
Ntoiues, la., tt,rred her to ni uty
irtut ttt guts point. liCts said
she enlivened %tint him to
iri%Ili. \e1,1., ,'Illi It"'i'
Y1C, TNee'JlTr5R OUT
AND TiApH Wm His
DA11Ci it0uTlNg.r':
Mdteto
Yan'Lt. 10, 505"
WI111.9 TNC 1000-
1116 MAtt PLAYS
TM HAND 01(5AN
NOWTURN THY
CRASH WHILES 6b
01150 YCUA: POUTtNt:
6514T1E04kEN -tow DANCE DtduCTOR IS AN
MCPERT... S'Tap 5000 THE AUDnroRrUA1
AND WATt:W NIM IN ACTION' c. ..•..
•
Ey Arthur Pointer
/ ,r as
c 0; at
McANWHILE: THE p4' Dut:tit( 1Ni1RY;gWS
THE naNTI.EMttN 00 Tan PREss,