Office of the Historian

USIA files, lot 56 D 581, “McCarthy Committee”

The United States High Commissioner for Austria (Thompson) to the Department of State1

confidential
No. 1744
Vienna, April 14, 1953.
  • Subject:
  • Report Requested by Mr. Roy Cohn Representing Senate Sub-Committee on Government Operations
[Page 1445]

Mr. Roy Cohn and Mr. David Schine, representatives of the Senate Subcommittee on Government Operations, arrived in Vienna the evening of April 10 and departed for Munich the afternoon of April 12, 1953.

On April 12 Mr. Cohn requested an official of the Embassy to supply him with a report outlining the dealings of the Embassy with the firm Globus G.M.B.H., (No. 2). Mr. Cohn specifically requested that the report cover Globus’ participation in the printing of the weekly program of Red-White-Red Radio which appears in the “Grosse Osterreich Illustrierte” and that such information be mailed so as to reach the Department by April 20, 1953.

An investigation conducted April 13 by the Embassy Fiscal Officer and Acting Security Officer disclosed the following business transactions between the Embassy and Globus G.M.B.H., Vienna (No. 2):

(a)
A monthly subscription to the “Pressedienst” (K.P.O. publication) has been procured since December, 1950 to date for the use of the editorial desk of the Wiener Kurier. Material contained in the publication is used by the editors of the Wiener Kurier to help in the refutation of statements appearing in other Communist publications and to otherwise embarrass the Communist cause wherever possible. Globus is the sole source of supply for this publication in Vienna.
(b)
Subscriptions to the “Szabad Ifjusag” and “Trodalmi Ujsag” were procured in May through December, 1952 at the request of the Department and were charged to IIA allotment 1921124-2M00060.

The investigation further disclosed that the weekly listing of Red-White-Red radio programs appearing in the “Grosse Osterreich Illustrierte” as well as the “Grosse Osterreich Illustrierte” itself are printed by the firm Elbemuehl. The officials of Elbemuehl state categorically that the printing of the radio programs or of the “Grosse Osterreich Illustrierte” has never been subcontracted to Globus. The firm Elbemuehl enjoys the reputation of a first-rate, reputable, and highly respected business firm. As the Department is probably aware, the “Grosse Osterreich Illustrierte”, a weekly magazine, is owned by interests close to the People’s Party.

Mr. Cohn requested that the foregoing information be made available to Mr. Scott McLeod, from whom he, Mr. Cohn, expects to obtain the report at some future date.

Llewellyn E. Thompson, Jr.
  1. Drafted by Orville H. Transtrum, Director of the Administrative Division of the Embassy in Austria.↩