AMERICANS HELD IN CHINA GETTING KIN'S PARCELS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000300130003-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 15, 1998
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: December 26, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

anLaGettang
By. Nicholas Daniloff
United Presa International
only the two
words "Delivery routine." But that message brought
glad tidings to American Red Cross headquarters this
Christmas. I John T. Downey of New
It meant simply, but elo-''Pi7itain, onn., an ichard T?
ryuentiy, that American prison- Fecteau of Lynn, Mass., were
cr s held 'in Communist China cap ure y e mesa w on
would be receiving their their aircraft was forced down
Christmas parcels. on a flight from Korea -to
The routine delivery was4-Japan Nov 29,' 1952. They
made Nov. 30. Actually, it is.,were convicted of espionage.
just one more in a series of'i' Downey was sentenced to life
)
monthly deliveries that began) imprisonment and Fecteau to
i
n 1351 when Peking hld 50
,e :inlcrieans.
r. o
ull
N
Y
.
m
., ... .. nose hold live. The others have, can businessman in Shanghai
been released over the years until arrested in March, 1952..
;;pone completion of prison. He was sentenced to life im-
te ns ;nr alleged activities.prisonment.
against the Communist state
I The Red C
.
ross and the Com
?
Capt. Philip 1:. Smith of Vic-, munist Chinese officials fi-
torville, Calif., was the latest, nally reached an agreement at mportal t matters, it will still
American to fall into Commu Geneva in 1954 for American 1 a there and it can be used,
nist Chinese hands when his prisoners to receive regular a said.
plane was shot down over the parcels.
Gulf of Tonkin in September; - "Each p r i son e r is now Thus, very month a Red
1965. allowed two 11-pound parcels ross of ices' flies to the Brit-
Red Cross authorities man- a month. Prepared, by the h crown colony of Hong
aged to get a message to him prisoners' families in the 'long fr Tokyo.,
on Christmas Day last year United States and by the Red
that his wife had given birth'.Cross, they contain such items There a Opens every pris-
` to a baby. . ,,as canned meat, crackers,
her pa el, inspects it
, and
The Red Cross got word coffee,. sugar, candy, tooth akes s e that its list of con-
from the Red Cross Society of paste, shaving cream and the ants is revise. down to the
China just a few days ago like. allest tem.
than Smith was "well and ins The Red Cross reports that On the appointed day-the
hood health.". They said per-, the Chinese have fully lived th of very m'o n t h-he
mission had been granted for up to the agreement. But they osses t e bridge of Wo-lu.
Smith to receive parcels, too. are strict about it.. At pre isely 11 a.m., an of-
!.. The American prisoners 'are. Sam Krakow, director of the f vial of the Chinese Red
a varied bunch, and are held'/Red Cross's international Cross ap ears on the other
!in different places. Little is services, said that efforts to s de.
;known of their daily lives, but! establish a similar agreement 1 "In a ordance with the
.word reaches . Washington with the North. Vietnamese a reemen reached between
frorn time to time that they and the Vietcong have yielded o r two national societies, I
are not being mistreated. Also,, no results. h reby 4 liver 'packages for
l:cy have occasionally. been Quiet Satisfaction t 1e Ame lean prisoners de.
permitted visits from'. rela- Krakow looks on' his con- t fined in China. Will you ac tives in America: c (pt the ?" The American
tacts with the Communist
Bishop a ks,
is Oldest '? Chinese over, the last 12 years
Oldest among the'prisoners'? with quiet satisfaction. The Ch nese repeats a
Is Bishop James E. Walsh, 75, "Wp are constantly in touch t ndard tatement accepting
a Maryknoll Father from Cum with the Chinese. This is a lit-
.
beriand, Md. He has served as tie bridge, and there is not he American- returns to
o Catholic missionary in China much traffic on it now," he o er of Ko u and as the first"
on and off since 1918. He was; said. "We want to be very t )ffiiness goes to the.
t egraph ce There he dis~;
sentenced March 18, 1960, to: careful and I Iaintain?the chan-
20 years' imprisonment for, nel. Pitches tie two/ dramatic:
-
'OSnienage ahd Subversion" I "One day, if there are more W rds:
'Deliver
..i ioutlne,"'
Sanitized - Approved For Release CIA-RDP75-00001 R000300130003-8
Huge F.' Redmond J
f,