Picking a Bone
With Ed Davis

Ed. Note: In last Friday’s “Behind the Headlines,” Ralph Freeman, a German refugee student here, expressed his views on the removal of enemy aliens from the vital Puget Sound area. Today, Ed Davis, graduated student in journalism, takes it upon himself to answer Mr. Freedman.

When measles breaks out in a house everyone in the house is quarantined. Those unaffected by the disease are made to suffer confinement along with the sick. This regulation is enforced to protect the health of the community. No one denies the necessity for such a regulation.
Yet, with the nation at war — fighting for its very life — there are those who fail to see that the innocent must suffer with the guilty — that everyone who might possibly help the Axis must endure confinement along with those who have been known to help the Axis.
A safeguard necessary to save a nation from the possibility of defeat is certainly more important than a measure to preserve the health of a community.
There Are Other Aliens
No one doubts that there are many aliens who have fled here from Germany hating the Nazis and their soulessness — vowing to do everything within their power to some day crush that regime that crushed their friends. No one doubts that there are Japanese aliens who would like to help the United States seek revenge for Pearl Harbor.
But there are other aliens — France found it out; Singapore discovered it — who have been sent by their masters to terrorize from within while their compatriots attack from the outside.
These aliens, too, declare their love for the United States and cry out for the opportunity to serve against the nation from where they came. They are here as refugees; like cultures (sic) they await their opportunity to lunge at our belly while we dazedly ward off thrusts at our throat.
Betrayed Their Trust
There is no possible way of determining which refugees will hold to us and which will support our enemies. France confined many of her more obvious ememies among the refugees which poured in during the days before the Nazi invasion. But others were trusted and betrayed their trust. We in this country cannot afford to take the same chance France took. Were we twice as far from Germany and from Japan we still could not afford to take that chance.
A few days ago the chief of the far flung Sino-Korean espionage organization, a group of 1500 agents working for the Allies, delcared he had secret Japanese papers which reveal Japanese plans to launch a simultaneous attack on Hawaii, Alaska, Janama, (sic) and the U.S. Pacific coast next April.
Must Understand Situation
It is impossible to know whether these plans are real or whether they are intended to veil other Axis plans. But a nation at war must always assume that the worst will happen and must take precautions to stave off this worst possibility.
Those aliens who are genuinely fond of the United States and for its ideals will understand the situation we face and will willingly sacrifice their own freedom in order that the life of this nation they love may not be imperiled. They will realize that the continuing survival of the United States is of far greater importance than the freedom of action of a minority, no matter how innocent members of that minority may be.