Dulles' Plan Draws Attack From Worthy

Secretary of State Dulles' offer yesterday to allow "a strictly limited number" of American newsmen to visit Red China was described last night as "a concession to domestic pressure" by Nieman Fellow William Worthy. Worthy expressed doubt "that the Chinese would cooperate with any deal like this."

Dulles made the offer at a news conference yesterday, but attached these conditions: (1) any such "one-shot experiment" must not be permitted to weaken the government ban on travel by other Americans to the Chinese mainland; and (2) prior approval by "leading figures in the newspaper world" will be necessary before the State Department acts.

Dulles also intimated a third possible condition: that such visits by American reporters must not be tied to visits to the United States by newsmen from Communist China.

The offer will probably be refused by Red China, Worthy thought, since "they will want to get a little more political propaganda out of the situation." Worthy, a reporter on the Baltimore Afro-American, defied the ban on China travel this past winter.

The newsman said that because of the restriction "the United States has suffered a lot of embarrassment in the eyes of the world." He said that he did not think Red China would be anxious to "relieve this embarrassment."

Worthy pointed out that although the United States boasts about its free press, "our press has bowed to an edict." "Nothing this ambiguity, "the rest of the world asks 'who are you to talk about the press of other countries?' From their point of view it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black," he added.

In a more general discusion of the travel ban, Worthy stated that "it is all tied up with the refusal of the administration to face the facts of life in China." He doubted that any of "the variety of reasons" recently alleged by Dulles were really behind the ban originally.