Mr. TAVENNER. Rather than to take the time to look that up, if you give
us what you consider to be the correct dates now, we will understand
if that is different from what you stated before that you are thereby
correcting the date.
Mr. STENHOUSE. I think I went to Shanghai in April--April, May, June,
with the Commission. And then June, July, August, or something like
that, with Food and Agriculture.
Mr. TAVENNER. Of what year?
Mr. STENHOUSE. 1948.
Mr. VELDE. Were you a member of the Communist Party at that time, Mr.
Stenhouse?
Mr. STENHOUSE. No, sir.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you define your duties in the various assignments
you held while in China?
Mr. STENHOUSE. Well, on the Commission it was research and analysis
and reporting, and I wrote a report on the problems of reestablishing
interregional trade in the Far East. And it was published by the United
Nations--not under my name, but incorporated in a much larger volume.
Mr. TAVENNER. Will you identify the volume and the article for the use
of the committee?
Mr. STENHOUSE. It must have been published. I suppose it was published
in 1949 probably.
Mr. TAVENNER. Under what caption?
Mr. STENHOUSE. I don’t remember that. It was published by the Economic
Commission for Asia and the Far East as a subsidiary agency of the
United Nations. But my material wasn’t any single article. It was
incorporated with a lot of other material by a lot of other people.
Mr. TAVENNER. In other words, your article was used as source material
in the preparation of a report by the United Nations. Is that what you
mean?
Mr. STENHOUSE. Yes.
Mr. TAVENNER. During your assignment in China were you required to
confer with known members of the Communist Party?
Mr. STENHOUSE. No.
Mr. TAVENNER. Or Communists?
Mr. STENHOUSE. Well, I want to be frank here, but, first of all, I
would like you to tell me in the context of Chinese people what the
definition of a Communist is.
Mr. TAVENNER. Living in China as long as you did, you probably should
understand that.
Mr. STENHOUSE. That is very difficult. The longer you live in China the
harder it is to do it.
Mr. VELDE. Were you conferring with the economic leaders in China when
you were on this assignment with the United Nations?
Mr. STENHOUSE. Yes.
Mr. VELDE. Was China under Communist domination at that time?
Mr. STENHOUSE. It certainly wasn’t.
Mr. VELDE. When was this?
Mr. STENHOUSE. 1948.
Mr. VELDE. At that time then you didn’t actually know whether you were
dealing with Chiang Kai-shek forces or the Red forces?
Mr. STENHOUSE. At that time, Mr. Congressman, Shanghai was still under
the Nationalists, and we dealt with officials of the Nationalist
Government.
Mr. VELDE. Then you certainly wouldn’t expect them to be Communists.
Mr. STENHOUSE. I wouldn’t expect it, but there were many, I
suppose--from what I know now--there were Communists in Shanghai at
that time.
Mr. VELDE. As leaders in the Nationalist Government?
Mr. STENHOUSE. Well, the reason why I asked for the definition was we
are always running into this problem of what is a Communist.
Mr. VELDE. There was nothing wrong in you conferring with Communists at
that time; understand that.
Mr. STENHOUSE. I want to answer the question.
Mr. VELDE. Or with Nationalists either. That was part of your duties.
Mr. STENHOUSE. I asked for the definition because one of the men who
was a consultant--and I didn’t appoint him--to the group that I was
working with was the chief of the Foreign Exchange Department of the
Bank of China.
Mr. VELDE. Do you recall his name?
Mr. STENHOUSE. Yes. Chi Chio Ting.
Mr. VELDE. You certainly do have a good recollection as to some
of these people, and you fail to recollect other people, chiefly
Communists, with whom you were associated.
Mr. STENHOUSE. China is my field. I remember him because he was related
to an area that I have since had contact with. And I remember him, too,
because shortly after--I think it was shortly after I left Shanghai or
while I was still there--he went over to the Peking Government. And,
as far as I know, that is the only contact that I had in Shanghai with
anything that you could call a Communist. And I don’t know that he was.
Mr. VELDE. Certainly I am sure, as Mr. Tavenner has very well stated,
that you, being acquainted in China, would certainly have a lot better
knowledge of communism in China than probably any of us here would. I
would like to ask if you recognized any of those associated with you
on the United Nations Commission in China as being what you consider
Communists?
Mr. STENHOUSE. The answer to that question is “No.”
This particular individual was acting only in the capacity of a
consultant. And I don’t think he was actually a member of the United
Nations. We were consulting with him and people like him because we
were concerned with finance and foreign exchange and so on.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Chairman, may I suggest that if the committee desires
to go into the Chinese phase of that matter carefully that it be done
at some other time. I believe, with the witnesses we have here, we
would not be able to complete the work that is outlined if we attempt
to go into that matter now. Besides, I think it is a matter we should
discuss with the witness, at least preliminarily, before attempting to
have a public hearing on it.
Mr. STENHOUSE. I would be very happy to do that.
Mr. VELDE. Let me say this, Mr. Chairman: I am disappointed at the
witness’ lack of memory concerning his early Communist associations
and his inability to identify the members of the group with which
he associated. However, I do feel that the information the witness
possesses would be valuable to this committee, and he certainly should
be given an opportunity to refresh his memory on any of these aspects
as much as possible.
I would suggest our staff immediately prepare, or start an
investigation into the matters related here today so we might hold a
future hearing to secure more valuable information than we have today.
And in that connection I would suggest that the subpena to this witness
be continued until some future date.
Mr. MOULDER. Mr. Stenhouse, the subpena which was served upon you will
remain in full force and effect until you are otherwise notified, or
notified to appear here as a witness before this committee in further
open session.
Mr. STENHOUSE. Mr. Chairman, may I make a short statement?
Mr. MOULDER. You will not be entitled to make a statement. You mean you
want to ask a question?
Mr. STENHOUSE. I just wanted to refer once more to this matter of
remembering the names. There were not more than 5 of these meetings.
They occurred in a context where I was discussing the same sort of
subjects in many different groups with many different individuals with
many different points of view. As I said before, I cannot remember the
names of people with whom I was in daily contact at that time.
I have moved out of that part of the country. I have very few
associations with it. It is entirely impossible for me to drag names
out of the air.
If the committee or its staff will be able to submit names to me I will
do my best to say whether or not I can remember those people.
Mr. MOULDER. That is the purpose of continuing in force and effect your
subpena. And you are now temporarily excused as a witness.
(Whereupon the witness was temporarily excused.)
Mr. MOULDER. Call the next witness, Mr. Tavenner.
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Dennett.
Mr. MOULDER. The name of the witness?
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Dennett.
TESTIMONY OF EUGENE VICTOR DENNETT, ACCOMPANIED BY HIS COUNSEL, KENNETH
A. MacDONALD--Resumed
Mr. TAVENNER. Mr. Dennett, I would like you to resume at this point the
identification of individuals who were prominent in Communist Party
activities in this area during the period that you were a member of the
CIO council.
Mr. DENNETT. Mr. Chairman, there is one fellow that came to my mind
after I left the stand here in connection with the Boeing plant, a
fellow by the name of Sam Telford, who was very well known to me at
that time.
Telford was very active in the organization of young people. His
wife, Kate, was one of the principal workers in the office of the
International Woodworkers of America. I happen to recall that because
Kate and I had one thing in common--we had both attended church when
we were young and had learned a number of hymns. And whenever social
affairs occurred she and I would be singing hymns. And it seemed to
grate on the nerves of the comrades. They wanted to know if we didn’t
know some revolutionary songs, and we got a big kick out of irritating
them with that.