DEPORTATION SOUGHT

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 53, 25 November 1937, Page 5

DEPORTATION SOUGHT

Labour Agitators in U.S. ALLEGED "BED" AFFILIATION (Eeceived 25, 8.45 a.m.) WASHINGTON, Nov. 24. "The Eederal Government is quietly investigating an alleged campaign aimed to cause the deportation of two officials of the Committee for Industrial Organisation on the ground that they are aliens and members of the Communist Partv." savs the eorres-

pondent of the British United Press. "They are Messrs. H. Bridges, organiser of the maritime branch of the C.I.O., and Harold Pritchett, President of the new International Woodworkers' Union. "It is understood that Mr. Bridges emphatically denied at a recent private hearing before the Labour Department that! he was a Communist, but the case against him is said to be supported by Governor Murtin, of Oregon, whose own investigators have inquired into Mr. Bridges ' past and have testified at several hearings against the Australian. It is understood that various rank-and-file members of the Sailors ' Union have also testified as to Mr. Bridges' supposed Communistie affiliations. Mr, Bridges, who has taken out his first papers of citqjens three times--he allowed the first two to lapse — is expected to complete his uaturalisation early in 1938, but under a post-war law any Communist Party affiliation woxxld be sufficient to assure his deportation. "Mr. Pritchett is a Canadian. He is in the United States under a temporary visa."