ISBN: Ostalo
Godina izdanja: 1953
Jezik: Engleski
Autor: Strani

Hardcover: 286 pages
Publisher: London A. Wingate (1953)

The Modern Inquisition. Hugo Dewar 1953

retko u ponudi!

Chapter IX: America and Britain in the Dock
Since over all these trials loomed the sinister shadow of Anglo-American imperialism, it must have often occurred to the producers that the cast of players assembled was incomplete. What an excellent stroke it would be if an American or an Englishman could be induced to play the part of spy in one of these shows! Representatives of every shade of opinion opposed to Soviet policy had recited their set pieces, but so far no genuine citizen of America or Britain had been found willing to beat his breast in public. Realising the educational value such confessions would have, the organisers looked around for suitable performers. But they searched for some time without finding the right material. British and American citizens were arrested, questioned for more or less lengthy periods (for instance, in the case of Mr Jacobson, US director of the American Joint Distribution Company, for as long as twenty hours without a break), found unsuitable, released and ordered out of the country. The most noteworthy example of this activity was the arrest of two employees of the oil company known as MAORT, in Hungary. These two men were Paul Ruedemann and George Bannantine, American citizens, respectively president and vice-president of the company, which was formerly American owned. They were arrested on 18 September 1948, after Hungarian employees under arrest had been ‘persuaded’ to make statements involving them in sabotage. Ruedemann and Bannantine, held incommunicado, were interrogated separately, shown the incriminating depositions of the Hungarians, and threatened with dire consequences if they refused to admit ‘the truth’. They took these threats sufficiently seriously to sign statements admitting that oil production had been deliberately retarded out of ‘political considerations’. However, no trial resulted. The charges could not be expanded to include espionage as well as sabotage, and the Hungarian authorities were not at all sure that these two men would adhere to their ‘confessions’ in a public trial. So they contented themselves with making what propaganda use they could of the statements extorted from them.

On 17 October the US Department of State issued a bulletin in which it was stated that:

With regard to the so-called ‘confessions’ which have been attributed to them by the Hungarian authorities, Mr Ruedemann and Mr Bannantine have affirmed that these statements were, in fact, prepared by the Hungarian police, that the contents of the documents are wholly false and that they copied and signed these ‘confessions’ only under duress. The two men were placed separately in solitary confinement in underground cells for the first four days and were subjected to long periods of questioning at all hours of the day and night. On various occasions they were required to stand with their faces against the wall and arms upraised until they collapsed. During this time, they were permitted very little food and drink.

These men were subjected to part of the technique now familiar to the reader. The treatment was of short duration, the interrogators apparently being satisfied that they could not get any more out of Ruedemann and Bannantine. The whole affair was in the nature of a try-out (the facsimile reproduction of their confessions contains a number of elementary mistakes in English — see Report of the Hungarian Ministry of Home Affairs on the MAORI Sabotage, Budapest, 1948). The difficulties confronting the stage managers when handling citizens of the West will be appreciated if one remembers that such persons have a government behind them concerned with their welfare, that it is not usually possible to bring economic pressure to bear on them or to threaten reprisals against their families. The field of selection — so vital in these affairs — is thus greatly narrowed. The number of Westerners living in the countries concerned is small in the first place, and in the second place few, if any, have the right background, that would give a charge of espionage a certain plausibility, and also the personal circumstances that would make it possible to bring all the pressures to bear on them. It was therefore no easy matter to find one or two persons with all the right qualifications; one essential qualification being intimate friendship with someone whom the authorities could handle in any way they liked...











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