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December 14, 1943
SAYS OWI OVERSEAS RADIO UNIT TOPHEAVY WITH COLH.'IUNI ST S
Pressing his resolution that a thorough investigation of the Office of War Information be made by Congress, Representative Fred E. Busbey ( R) , of Illinois, declared that such an investigation would, among other things, disclose the following facts:
"The Office of War Information maintains in New York, their Foreign Languages Division, from which short-wave overseas broadcasts by radio are made to foreign countries. An investiga¬ tion will verify the fact that the personnel in these offices is overloaded and topheavy with aliens, Communists, and fellowtravel¬ ers who subscribe to an ideology that is inimical to our form of Government, and the avowed purpose of which is to destroy it.
"Attempts on the part of officials in OWI have been made to retain employees on the pay roll, even after their subversive activities were known.
"The offices of OWI have not only been used to propagand¬ ize the public in behalf of the policies of the New Deal, but their broadcasts to foreign countries do not reflect the true sentiments and philosophies of the overwhelming majority of the American people, and I doubt the Department of State,
"Propaganda favorable to the cause of communism has been injected into foreign broadcasts.
"The OWI broadcasts have emphasized on certain occasions, the second front, which does not coincide with the strategy and policy up until now of those charged with the responsibility of carrying on the war. "
Representative Busbey declared that an investigation of OWI should not be considered as a party proposition in the least for all are equally concerned, and added:
"I am sure the Members on both sides of the aisle who put country above party, are anxious to know the full, true facts regard-ing this agency, in order to determine what should be done in the best interests of our country. There is absolutely no other way to ascertain these facts than by a thorough, complete investigation of the entire agency. "
Previously Representative Busbey charged that there were more than 20 alleged subversives who now are or had recently been tne employ of OWI. Among those he named who had to do with radio and about whom he stated he had reason to believe an investigating
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