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'V AS IN BARNUM SUJL far as the directors themselves were concerned, and put to rest rumors that the Guild was dominated by Commie dupes. Upon his return to the States, Mankiewicz (in no sense a DeMille adherent) sharply criticized the Board's action. Then he learned something that prodded him into immediate action; a petition was being circulated among Guild members calling for his recall as president. Now, the lines were formed, and the issues joined—DeMille and his followers against Mankiewicz and those who felt a loy- alty oath was an affront to every American. The membership was aroused and, 500 strong, trouped to a meeting in late October. Arguments raged for five hours. At midnight the battle was still on. Mankiewicz made it clear that he was unalterably opposed to an open ballot, a blacklist, and a mandatory oath. He said all three procedures were un-American. Before he had finished his hour long opening speech it be- came apparent to most of the members present that, as one observer put it, "the DeMille-Rogell-Marshall faction had at- tempted to ride the wrong horse " DeMille defended the position of his faction. As the debate wore on and he began to sense the size of the opposition, he turned his fire on what he alleged to be the questionable poli- tics of his opponents. Without referring to anyone by name, DeMille charged that most of the twenty-five directors who had tried to stop the recall of Mankiewicz were affiliated with leftist or subversive organi- zations or theories. The meeting, according to Variety, started to hiss and boo him. "John Cromwell, Don Hartman, Rouben Mamoulian, Her- bert Leeds, William Wellman, John Ford, among others, bitterly assailed DeMille's statements." One director asserted he was "sick and tired" of being re-