Purity

General MacArthur's brand new Japan has become the white hope of democracy in the Far East, and there have been some extraordinary efforts to keep it pure. One such is an ultimatum presented by a group of Republican and Southern Democratic congressmen to the State Department demanding that Japan recognize Chiang-kai-Shek as China's true leader.

Another is the Army's refusal to grant Professor John K. Fairbank, long opposed to Far Eastern democracy's grayer hope, Chiang, permission to spend a year in Japan teaching. Waiting until Fairbank had reached San Francisco, the Pentagon denied him the permit necessary for entrance into Japan without even suggesting the reasons for its action.

This was probably the result of testimony before Senator McCarran's committee investigating the Institute of Pacific Relations. There, former Communists Bentley and Budenz put together a few pieces of paper (a letter from China Fairbank allegedly delivered to an espionage ring worker, a reference to Fairbank in a party report) to give Fairbank a bona-fide party card.

The case of Fairbank's permit is under review, but the damage has already been done: Fairbank has had to return to Cambridge for the year. Although he has requested the McCarran Committee and the FBI to investigate him thoroughly, he still has not had a chance to clear himself. What is worse, he still does not know what the charges are against him.

Hiding the Keep Japan Pure crusade behind military anonymity is a new twist in an older crusade, one that started with Attorney-General Palmer back in the twenties. The trick in this case is to intimidate the Pentagon by thundering "Red!" whether there is sufficient evidence or not--a trick typical of the lengths to which pressure groups will go to stfle opinions differing with their own. If the Army will not replace this system with a more intelligent screening process, at least it should tell the accused what he is being accused of.