Press Release, Statement by the President

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT KEY WEST, FLORIDA MARCH 28, 1950 FOLLOWING ARE THE TEXTS OF TWO LETTERS WHICH THE PRESIDENT HAS SENT TODAY: Hon. Millard E. Tydings United States Senate 'NATIONAL Washington, D. C. .RCHIVES AMD RECORDO SERVICE Dear Senator Tydings: This is in reply to your letter of March 22, 1950, in which you have asked for the production before your Sub- committee of the investigative files relating to Government employees who are or have been employed in the Department of State and against whom charges of disloyalty have been made before your Subcommittee by Senator McCarthy. The question raised by your request is one of graye concern, and I have given very careful consideration to the response contained herein. In March of 1948, I issued a Directive to all of- ficers and employees in the Executive Branch of the Govern- ment, directing that all reports, records, and files relat- ing to the employee loyalty program be kept in strict confid- ence, even in instances where subpoenas were received. As you know, this Directive was clearly within the power of the President, and I issued it only after the most careful con- sideration and after I had satisfied myself beyond any doubt that any other decision would have resulted in the collapse of the loyalty program. At that time, I issued a release in which I pointed out the long-standing precedents regarding the production of confidential files and the reasons for my decision. I referred, among other things, to a letter from former Attorney General Robert H, Jackson, dated April 30, 1941, to the Chairman of the House Committee on Naval Affairs, declining to furnish that Committee with certain reports of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which letter was written with the approval and at the direction of President Roosevelt. That letter forcefully pointed out the serious consequences that would have resulted from compliance with the request of the House Naval Affairs Committee. Among other things, Attorney General Jackson stated: "Moreover, disclosure of the reports would be of serious prejudice to the future usefulness of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, As you probably know, much of this information is given in confidence and can only be obtained upon pledge not to disclose its sources. A disclosure of the sources would embarrass in- formants sometimes in their employment, sometimes in their social relations, and in extreme cases might even endanger their lives. We regard the keeping of faith with confiden- tial informants as an indispensable condition of future efficiency. "Disclosure of information contained in the reports might also be the grossest kind of injustice to innocent individuals. Investi- gative reports include leads and suspicions, and sometimes even the statements of malicious or misinformed people.