(j\'
DATE :
TO
SI August, 1967,
Herbert Katzki
FROM :
Sophie Lennox
SUBJECT; Article in the OBSERVER, London, 2"^ August, on Czech arrests.
The first edition of the paper which was sold in Geneva did not carry either by­
line or dateline. In fact, the article was written by Lajos Lederer in collaboration
vlth'Edward Crankshaw.
I was able to contact Mr. Lederer through a friend and former colleague wbe is the
Biplomatic correspondent of the OBSERVER. It was understodd that I was asking for
information in ny capacity as a JDC staff member, and thAfc this information was for the
JDC itself and not for publication.
I spoke to Mr. Lederer on Wednesday, 30 August by telephone in London, While not
identifying his sources, for obvious reasons, he told me that he had two sources,
one of them a key man at ttie Czech Embassy in London. He repeated to me that a
number of people had been called in for questioning and had been detained by the
Czechs, Among them, he said, were members of the hotel staff and people from
Bratislava idio work for the Jewish community. Did I know, he asked me, iriiether
JDC of Charlie had any contacts or business with Bratislava. I told me that I did
ncpt know but did not believe so#
Of Prague he said that it had developed into an espionage center, with the Poles and
East Germans in the lead there. In addition, it had become an assembly place for
military missions from the Arab countries, who keep permanent hotel apartments, snae
in the very hotel Charlie was staying. One such Arab mission had arrived at the
Esplanade Hotel three d^s ahead of Charlie, and they were dining at the table next
to his on his last night. •• In reply to my question/ he said that he did not mean to
imply "that he thou^t this was an Arab job, just to show what Prame was like today*
He compared it to the Vienna of 1946, where a man could vanish ofpthe street with
equal ease.
I asked for his reaction to the Caech denial of any arrests# He considers the denial
(a corunon Communivt country practice^, he called it) a result of shock and aseitaid.^(l(
Jlmowledge of the facts in Czech officisil circles rather than of guilt. He does not
believe that the death of Charlie was the deed of the government, which in this case
woxild be the Czech foreign affairs ministry. As far as he could ascertain, the Czechs
hed been shocked by Charlie's disappearance. He considers that althou^ they havS
tciken the Russian line in the Middle East situation, they ( as well as the Hungarians,
he added) would not wish to endanger their U.S. relations in a manner the murder of
an American so prominent in the U.S. would entail.
I referred to the refusal of the Czecltto wait with the autopsy and to the removal
of vital parts from the body. He thinks this was the result of Czech government fears
of disclosures on a matter to which they themselves KXS did as yet not have the
answers.
He said that whether the State Department did or did not know of the arrests,
would be otiiged to disclaim knowledge in any case*
I gathered that the Czechs had given him to understand that not only had they welcomed''
Charlie's visit to Prague,but that -• certainly prior to the Russian dictated line on
the Middle East - idiey had^^en quite hopeful and positive about JDC working again
in Czechoslovakia. Had ther^ne asked me,any such plans for the future on which
Mr. Jordan could have been working. I told him that I thought that was highly unlikely
•1
had
and that under no circumstances/Charlie gone there to work on
the whole idea seemed way out to me^ ^
arsy
ZS^BiX program. In fact,
Lederer "Uien brought up a point which has been made to me from many different quarters,
namely Mrs# Jordan's statement regardingU.S leaving the hotel at 9»30 p.m. to buy a
newspaper. Lederer said that the only sure place to get a foreign paper in Prague,
especially at that hour, was the Esplanade Hotel itself. He believes she waited all those
long hours before contacting the Bmbassy because she knew where he had really gone^
and had she knowi he was already dead and could no longer be saved by her silence she
may have acted differently. As it was, she stuck to her story ( if indeed she has - the
Paris correcpondent of MA,'ARIV rang her at the hotel in Prague on Saturday night (August
19), and he told Sa*" "he had said Charlie had gone out for a walk.)
You will note that Lederer did not use any of these conjectures in his story, but only
what he believed to be substantiated*
I shall be in touch with him again by the end of the week» If the above information is
to be made use of in any form « other than publicati.on •• it should be borne in mdind
that Lederer*s sources must not be blocked as a result. He expects to have further
information.
Lederer's reporting on Eastern Europe is widely respected. The case of O.Wynne, the CTTirra
British businessman who dis^peared in Budapest in 1962, is stiM. in memDry. Ledered was
responsible for digging up the facts, printed in the OBSERVER, He was proved correct
in writing that the kidnapping had not been done by ttie Hungarians. His article brought
him a call from the then British Prime Minister to disclose his sources, this leading
to the eventtal admission by the Russian Ambassador than the Wynne kidnapping had been
done by the Russians.The trial which followed in Moscow is public knowledge.