Mrs. Markham Invokes Privilege at Red Probe

Repeatedly invoking the First and Fifth Amendments, Mrs. Helen Deane Markham, assistant professor of Anatomy at the Medical School, refused to answer questions dealing with the Corporation's statement of May 19 and possible Communist activity.

Appearing before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee in Washington yesterday, Mrs. Markham reiterated her Boston refusal of March 27 to testify as to possible Communist affiliations.

Mrs. Markham's refusal came in the face of the Corporation's statement of May 19, in which the governing board stated that, to the best of its knowledge, she "is not, and never has been a member of the Communist Party."

Jenner Queries

At one point in the half-hour testimony, Sen. Jenner (R-Ind.) asked her, "Did you tell the Harvard Corporation you were not and never have been a member of the Communist Party?"

"That is irrelevant," Dr. Markham replied, and invoked the Fifth and First Amendments.

Jenner pressed her, and she stated: "I decline to discuss whether I even talked with the Harvard Corporation."

Committee counsel Robert Morris later took up the same theme, asking her: "Did you recently deny to the Harvard authorities that you have been a member of the Communist Party?"

Replied Mrs. Markham: "You retaliate at Harvard because it has seen fit to retain me. Any inquiry on that is irrelevant."

In a statement to the press, Mrs. Markham declared that the questioning "confirmed my prediction of yesterday that this was an attempt to punish me and the Harvard Corporation because we have not capitulated to their dictates.

"These questions revealed a vengeful attitude toward Harvard for deciding to continue to run its own affairs, rather than be directed by ambitious politicians riding on the crest of popular hysteria they themselves created."

After the hearing Jenner said his committee is sending a copy of her testimony to the Corporation. "We want to give them the record," he said. "We don't know whether the statements she made to them were sworn or not sworn.

"Over there (at Harvard), the impression was that she is not a member of the Communist Party, and yet underneath it all she declines to answer. I don't care what Harvard does, but we want them to have the truth."

Jenner referred to that part of the Corporation's statement which said, "We think Dr. Markham's use of the Fifth Amendment is misconduct which creates the necessity for us to inquire into the full facts . . . On the information we now have we will take no action against her.