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COMMUNISM IN MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY 1529 If your Honor recalls, the witness, Mr. Leo Townsend, was on the stand and the committee members had not yet questioned him. Mr. Wood. Will Mr. Townsend return to the stand. TESTIMONY OF LEO TOWNSEND—Resumed Mr. Wood. I will now yield to the members of the committee if there are any questions they desire to ask. Mr. Walter. Mr. Townsend, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate you on having the courage to come here and make the statement that you made. I know it wasn't an easy thing to do but you have made a great contribution in the struggle for freedom and I congratulate you. Mr. Townsend. I thank you. I felt that I was speaking not only for myself but for the motion-picture industry. Mr. Walter. During the course of your testimony you deplored the fact that the United States Communists have not stated their goal and aims at this time. In view of that fact don't you feel that the goals and aims are the same as they were before Korea ? Mr. Townsend. Well, I think their goals and aims change ac- cording to the change of policy of the Soviet Union. What I said was that they have not openly, as far as I know, proclaimed these aims to the American people. I think that this is a dishonest position. Mr. Walter. That being the fact, don't you think it is safe to conclude that their aims are what they have always been, namely world domination? Mr. Townsend. Yes. Their aims are the aims of the Soviet Union, in my opinion. Mr. Walter. Mr. Townsend, you stated that you aided in the activities of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship. Was that a Communist-front organization ? Mr. Townsend. I am quite sure it was. I aided it in terms of con- tributing money. Mr. Walter. Yes. Mr. Townsend. Yes, it was a Communist-front organization. Mr. Walter. Was it a Communist organization throughout the United States or just in particular parts of it ? Mr. Townsend. I have no knowledge of other branches of it, The organization here was fostered by Communists. Mr. Walter. In your contact with Communists, have you discussed with them the known conditions that exist behind the iron curtain? Mr. Townsend. I have tried to from time to time, but Communists seem completely to disregard these facts. They refuse, somehow, to believe them. Mr. Walter. What do they have to say about the avowed purpose of liquidating free nations, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania? Mr. Townsend. I believe that that, in Communist parlance, is called "liberating these nations." Mr. Walter. Liberating ? Mr. Townsend. Yes. Mr. Walter. Do you suppose the same term is used in describing what is happening in Poland today where approximately 5 million of the intelligentsia have been liberated?