Stimson denies Army censors ballot mail
No envelope opened, Secretary says
Washington (UP) –
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson answering claims that soldiers’ ballots had been opened by Army censors, declared today that “an investigation has not disclosed a single such envelope opened.”
He said orders were sent by the War Department Dec. 15, 1943, that any envelope marked as containing ballot material was not subject to censorship. This order, he said, has been reiterated in various War Department directives and, more recently, in Army radio instructions.
Senator studies need for probe
Washington (UP) –
Senator Homer Ferguson (R-MI), said today that there “might be a need for an investigation” into letters endorsing President Roosevelt which Mayor Edward J. Kelly of Chicago has sent to servicemen, provided any attempt has been made to tamper with election machinery.
He said, however, that evidence reaching him does not disclose any such attempt, and consequently, there probably will be no request for an investigation by the Senate Campaign Expenditures Committee.
Mr. Ferguson pointed out that under the 1944 Service Voting Act, “Kelly has a right to send any kind of propaganda he wants to the soldiers.”
GOP sends pleas, Navy officer says
Miami, Florida (UP) –
An officer at the Miami Naval Training Center reported today that Republican campaign literature had been received from Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire by sailors stationed here and that in the Michigan case such maternal was accompanied by a ballot.
Political talk laid to chaplain
Galesburg, Illinois (UP) –
Richard J. Lyons, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, said today he had received a letter from a Coast Guardsman in New Guinea which charges that thousands of servicemen were forced to “remain in their seats” and listen to a political speech.
The letter was from Richard Smothers, former Marion, Illinois, businessman, Mr. Lyons said.
The letter said:
After a group of several thousand men had gathered for a show, they announced that we had to keep our seats, that they had acquired some wonderful speakers, including high-ranking officers who were carrying a message to all the war zones on the face of the earth.
As it is time for we servicemen to send for our ballots, I don’t believe I ever heard a more enthusiastic New Deal speech. The principal speaker was the President’s chaplain. He emphasized what a wonderful job our President, our Commander-in-Chief, I believe, is the way he put it, was doing.
The letter did not disclose the name of the chaplain.