TESTIMONY OF JOHN STENHOUSE, ACCOMPANIED BY HIS COUNSEL, JACK R. CLUCK
Mr. Tavenner. Will you state your name?
Mr. Stenhouse. John Stenhouse.
Mr. Tavenner. It is noted you are accompanied by counsel. Will counsel identify himself?
Mr. Cluck. Jack R. Cluck, C-l-u-c-k, 535 Central Building, Seattle.
Mr. Tavenner. When and where were you born, Mr. Stenhouse?
Mr. Stenhouse. I was born in Chungking, China, on January 22, 1908.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you spell your last name, please.
Mr. Stenhouse. S-t-e-n-h-o-u-s-e.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you now an American citizen?
Mr. Stenhouse. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. When and where were you naturalized?
Mr. Stenhouse. I was naturalized in Los Angeles on April 23, 1943.
Mr. Tavenner. When did you arrive in the United States?
Mr. Stenhouse. I am not quite certain, but it was either December of 1940 or January of 1941.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you been in the United States continuously since that time?
Mr. Stenhouse. No. In June 1948 I went out to China, and returned to the United States either September or October of the same year.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you tell the committee, please, what your formal educational training has been.
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, I went to a public school in England, and after completing my education in England I went back to China.
Mr. Tavenner. When did you go back to China?
Mr. Stenhouse. In 1928.
Mr. Tavenner. Where did you live in China from 1928 until you came to the United States?
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, I was in my father’s business in China. The name of the firm was MacKenzie & Co., and they had several branches in China. I spent some time in Shanghai. I then went to—
Mr. Tavenner. Will you fix the dates, please.
Mr. Stenhouse. It is pretty hard. But approximately 9 months in Shanghai. That would be in 1928.
I really don’t remember the month that I got to Shanghai, but I was there approximately 9 months.
Then I went to Tientsin, and I was there until the beginning of 1931, I think it was.
Mr. Velde. What kind of a company was MacKenzie & Co.?
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, it was a British trading firm. We had—-
Mr. Velde. Import-export?
Mr. Stenhouse. And warehouses and shipping and that sort of activity. Then I went to Hankow. I was there until about 1934. I remember the date because we went home on leave at that time, and I got married that year. And then after leave I went back to Tientsin, and I was there until 1939 when we went home on leave again.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you mean to your home in England?
Mr. Stenhouse. Yes. Then I went back to China in the fall of 1939, just after war was declared, and I was in Tientsin until the end of—well, the end of 1940. During 1940 I was sent up on a mission by my company to Chungking and to Hong Kong. That lasted about 3 or 4 months, I think.
Mr. Tavenner. After your arrival in this country how did you become employed and where?
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, before I left China I had made arrangements with a firm in Peiping to import and sell Chinese antiques. And he gave me the name of a man in Los Angeles with whom he had done business, and suggested that I call on him because he was in somewhat similar business. And when I got to Los Angeles I called on this gentleman and made arrangements to work out of his establishment.
Later on—I can’t remember the date—I went into partnership with him under the style of Alkow & Stenhouse, and we conducted an importing business of Chinese antiques and sort of handicraft items, and had a retail outlet on Wilshire Boulevard.
Mr. Tavenner. How long were you so engaged in business in Los Angeles?
Mr. Stenhouse. Until Pearl Harbor. And I decided then that——
Mr. Tavenner. From what date until Pearl Harbor?
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, as soon as I got to Los Angeles, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. That date was what?
Mr. Stenhouse. I don’t remember the exact date, but it was sometime in January of 1941.
Mr. Tavenner. That is sufficient.
Will you proceed, please. You continued in that business until Pearl Harbor. How were you employed after Pearl Harbor?
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor the war was on. And, for one thing, I wanted to participate in the war. So I took a drafting course and then got a job with Shell Chemical in Dominguez, I think it was until the end of—I was there for 3 or 4 months, I think it was. I don’t remember the exact date now.
Mr. Velde. What was the name of the company?
Mr. Stenhouse. Shell Chemical.
Mr. Velde. Is that also known as Shell Development Co.?
Mr. Stenhouse. I don’t know. It may be a subsidiary. It was connected with the Shell Oil Co.
Then I got a job with Fruehauf Trailer Co., which was nearer home. And I was there until, I think, about June of 1943.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you proceed a little more rapidly? What was your next employment?
Mr. Stenhouse. Then I went to Bendix Aviation in North Hollywood. The reason for the change was, or one of the reasons for the change was, it was much nearer home, and gasoline was a problem. Time and transportation time were problems. And I was at Bendix until about March 1945, when I had a hernia operation and was told to get out of that sort of work.
At about that time there were notices in the papers asking for people with some background in the Far East to assist in finishing off the war against Japan. So I applied for a number of jobs. One was with the Office of War Information, and another was with the Office of Strategic Services. I also applied for work with 2 or 3 American companies who were planning or had had affiliations in the Far East.
And then I got an appointment with the United States Department of Commerce as an economic analyst in the China Section of the Far Eastern Division.
Mr. Tavenner. Is that the first position you held under the United States Government?
Mr. Stenhouse. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. And when did you enter the employ of the United States Government?
Mr. Stenhouse. I think it was June 1945.
Mr. Tavenner. Did your duties require you to go to Washington?
Mr. Stenhouse. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. How long did you remain in Washington?
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, I remained with the Government until November 1947, and——
Mr. Tavenner. Is that with the Commerce Department until 1947?
Mr. Stenhouse. Yes.
Mr. Velde. Were you an economic analyst in the Far Eastern Division during your entire employment by the Government?
Mr. Stenhouse. No. About a year after I was there I was promoted to Chief of the China Section and, some time in there, as Acting Assistant Chief of the Division. And a little later, just before I left the Department, I was temporary Acting Chief of the Division while the Division Chief was away.
In 1947, November 1947, my employment there terminated, and again I was looking for a suitable occupation. And I applied many, many places. I applied with many American firms who were in business in the Far East or had business connections in the Far East. And I also applied for an appointment that I heard about with the United Nations.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you receive the appointment with the United Nations?
Mr. Stenhouse. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. When?
Mr. Stenhouse. I think it was about June of 1948. There was a period when I was living in Washington that I was not employed.
Mr. Tavenner. What was the nature of your employment by the United Nations?
Mr. Stenhouse. I had a 3-month special appointment to go out to Shanghai to work on the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, which was a separate section of the United Nations. And the work was related to the rehabilitation of trade, with special reference to the development of interregional trade in the light of the changed situation after the war.
I wrote a report which was included in a document published by the United Nations.
At the end of the 3-month period I was appointed administrative assistant to the—I don’t know what his actual title was, but it was something like director of food and agriculture mission in China; a 3-month appointment again, and I worked in that capacity for about 3 months; I think until the end of September, when I was found to have some possibilities of tuberculosis. So I wanted to go back to the United States and get a thorough investigation of that, and I got a letter from the director of the mission there to the home office suggesting that I be given a permanent contract—not a permanent contract but a more long-range contract to go out under circumstances that would allow me to take my family out. However, on the way back from China I stopped here in Seattle and met some businessmen for whom I had done some work in my official capacity in the Department. They were pleased with the work I had done and they suggested that I join their firm in Seattle.
Mr. Tavenner. What was the approximate date of your return to the United States when you first became a resident of this community?
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, my return to the United States was about September or October of 1948. I went back to Washington——
Mr. Tavenner. I understand that. But you told us about your return to the United States and stopping here in Seattle.
Mr. Stenhouse. You asked me when I first came here, and became a resident. There was a gap of a couple of months because I went back to Washington to pick up my family, and we actually came here to Seattle as residents in January of 1949.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you resided in Seattle since that date?
Mr. Stenhouse. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. What is your present occupation?
Mr. Stenhouse. I am an insurance agent.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you read any of the testimony before this committee of General Willoughby who was G-2 on General MacArthur’s staff, which related to the development of communism in China?
Mr. Stenhouse. No.
Mr. Tavenner. General Willoughby documented considerable evidence before this committee regarding the activities of certain American citizens in China. My desire now is merely to ask you whether or not you observed any Communist Party activities on the part of American nationals in China?
Mr. Stenhouse. No.
Mr. Tavenner. And I refer particularly to the period 1928 and 1929 when you were in Shanghai.
Mr. Stenhouse. I didn’t know anything about it. I was a businessman.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you at any time been affiliated with the Communist Party, and, if so, in what country or countries?
Mr. Stenhouse. During the war some 10 years ago I was a member of the Communist Party in this country.
Mr. Tavenner. In this country?
Mr. Stenhouse. And that is the only affiliation that I have had.
Mr. Tavenner. I am not asking you now about your own affiliation, or indicating that I believe you were affiliated with the Communist Party in China, but we are anxious to have any information you have regarding Communist Party activities in China.
Mr. Stenhouse. I haven’t any information, Mr. Tavenner. When I left China in 1940 I only had a very vague idea about what was going on there.
Mr. Tavenner. Let me put the question to you this way because it is a very broad subject.
General Willoughby testified before this committee that the form of organization of mass organizations in China from 1929 on was virtually identical with what we have found in this country since the early and middle thirties, that is, in working through mass organizations or front organizations, as we frequently call them in this country.
Did you observe any activity of that kind?
Mr. Stenhouse. No, and I wouldn’t have done it because I was living in the international concessions in watertight compartments where we associated, except in business, with Europeans and Americans. I am somewhat—what was going on in the interior of China and in Chinese politics I was somewhat abysmally ignorant of in those days.
Mr. Tavenner. It has been demonstrated that Americans, people from this country took an active part in some of that organizational work in China.
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, I never did.
Mr. Tavenner. Did the fact that you were in an international section mean that you could not have had any knowledge of it?
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, I didn’t have any knowledge of it. I was involved in business until the Japanese threatened my business. I wasn’t concerned with politics.
Mr. Tavenner. I am not indicating I have any information that you were involved in it. I am merely asking what knowledge you had of it?
Mr. Stenhouse. I really have no knowledge.
Mr. Velde. I think we ought to make this clear: Are you referring to the period of time you were in China prior to 1940, and not about your trip the second time?
Mr. Stenhouse. That is correct.
Mr. Velde. Have you been back more than once since 1940 to China?
Mr. Stenhouse. No. Only once.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you say you became a member of the Communist Party while you were in Los Angeles?
Mr. Stenhouse. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. What was the approximate date of your becoming a member?
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, to the best of my recollection, it was in the latter part of 1943.
Mr. Tavenner. Where were you living at that time?
Mr. Stenhouse. In Horseshoe Canyon.
Mr. Tavenner. Were you assigned to any particular group of the Communist Party when you first became a member?
Mr. Stenhouse. I don’t think it was a matter of assignment, to my knowledge. I was asked if I would like to attend some discussion group meetings and, to the best of my recollection, there were not more than 4 or 5 of them in Los Angeles.
Mr. Tavenner. Four or 5 what?
Mr. Stenhouse. Of these discussion group meetings.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you mean that you attended 4 or 5 of these discussion group meetings?
Mr. Stenhouse. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you recall whether or not you were transferred from one such group to another?
Mr. Stenhouse. I am pretty certain I wasn’t. I am not aware of it. Somebody may have transferred me. But, as far as I know, I attended a group of discussion meetings somewhere, not too far from where we lived in North Hollywood. I don’t remember now whether it was in more than one home. It may have been in 1 or 2.
Mr. Tavenner. How many persons attended those meetings?
Mr. Stenhouse. About 4 or 5.
Mr. Tavenner. Were they always the same persons or did the group vary as to its composition?
Mr. Stenhouse. It may have varied. I don’t remember for sure.
Mr. Tavenner. What was the nature of the business conducted at those meetings?
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, we discussed Communist and other literature and articles. We discussed the affairs that were concerning all of us at that time, of the war and the winning of the war—and it was just talk.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you recall whether or not Communist Party literature was made available for your purchase at the meetings?
Mr. Stenhouse. Yes, it was.
Mr. Tavenner. And for your use?
Mr. Stenhouse. Yes, it was.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you take part in the study group, in the study of the Communist Party literature yourself?
Mr. Stenhouse. Oh, I suppose I read what we were asked to read or was suggested we read, and made some attempt to discuss it at the next meeting.
I might add that the literature that was at those meetings was also on sale in some of the bookstores in Los Angeles. There was a Lincoln Book Store there which had Communist and other material for sale. I was in the bookstore 2 or 3 times. There was also at these meetings material that was not Communist, at least not published by the party.
Mr. Tavenner. Was the Lincoln Book Store known as a Communist book shop?
Mr. Stenhouse. It wasn’t known to me as such.
Mr. Tavenner. There has been evidence of that character presented to the committee.
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, I wouldn’t doubt it actually. But they sold things other than Communist Party literature. And it wasn’t under the table. It was right out in the open. Anybody from the street could walk in and pick it up and read it.
Mr. Tavenner. Who invited you to become a member of that group?
Mr. Stenhouse. I don’t know, sir. At that time I was very active in the United Auto Workers. I felt that the United Auto Workers was doing a fine job in increasing production for the war. Their no-strike pledge was very loyally kept, and there were people there who always attended meetings, who were always ready to try and get other people to come to the union meetings, who were ready to do jobs for the union in the way of promoting blood-bank drives, and so on, getting people to register to vote, and the sort of things that I was interested in. Some one of these people who I had some knowledge of their actions asked me if I would go to such a meeting, and I said I would.
Mr. Tavenner. Were the other members of this group of Communist Party persons employed in the same business in which you were employed?
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, as far as I remember, there were possibly 2 or 3 of the group who were at the Bendix plant. I am not sure now. It is hard to differentiate.
Mr. Moulder. You say you were interested in the same things that they were interested in, that is, getting people interested in elections and going to the polls to vote.
Mr. Stenhouse. Sure.
Mr. Moulder. Do you recall whether or not at that time the Communist Party had candidates for whom you could cast a ballot?
Mr. Stenhouse. We weren’t interested in it. We were voting Democratic. I was a Democrat.
Mr. Moulder. The point I was trying to make, if you were interested in that party why did you join the Democratic Party? I don’t understand why you affiliated yourself with a party that had no candidates for whom you could vote.
Mr. Stenhouse. I didn’t deliberately go out to affiliate myself with it. Somebody who was interested in it also, as a Democrat—and these things that were part of the war effort—suggested that I go to one of these meetings. And he had become a person I had some respect for because of his apparent adherence to the things that the majority of the American people were doing at that time. I accepted the idea and went to the meetings.
Mr. Moulder. Were they Communist Party organization meetings?
Mr. Stenhouse. I don’t understand you.
Mr. Moulder. Are you talking about Communist Party meetings?
Mr. Stenhouse. No. I am talking about union meetings and how it came about that somebody invited me to go.
Mr. Moulder. I am referring to the Communist Party meetings.
Mr. Stenhouse. There were many meetings at that time, Mr. Chairman—union meetings; many union meetings I attended. I was very much impressed with the union.
Mr. Moulder. Were the union meetings you attended Communist Party meetings?
Mr. Stenhouse. I think we have got at cross purposes someway here.
I was trying to explain how it came about that somebody invited me to go to one of these discussion group meetings, and it was through the association with somebody whom I had some regard for in his union activity that I accepted an invitation.
Mr. Moulder. Was the discussion group meeting a Communist Party meeting or merely affiliated with the Communist Party?
Mr. Stenhouse. I am as confused as you are about that.
Mr. Moulder. Do you know whether you were a Communist at that time?
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, to be frank about it, I believe I signed a Communist Party card at some time.
I have a vague recollection of a card which had an American flag on it and some very patriotic phraseology about the war effort and the alliance between our country and the Soviet Union. It may have even had some words about the Communist Party on it. But it seemed to me entirely innocuous. In fact, again it appeared to be directed to the things I was interested in, in the war effort.
Mr. Moulder. Did you pay dues to the Communist Party after signing the Communist Party card?
Mr. Stenhouse. I believe there was some sort of dues structure, but I don’t remember now how it worked. There were these materials for sale at the meetings, and money changed hands. I don’t remember now how much of it was for books, how much of it was for dues.
Mr. Moulder. Over what period of time did you continue to participate in such meetings and in what you then considered to be Communist Party activity?
Mr. Stenhouse. Well, I find it hard to set the actual dates, but it was, I think, some time during the latter part of 1943 and 1944.
Mr. Moulder. And thereafter you have never in any way whatsoever participated in any Communist Party activity?
Mr. Stenhouse. That isn’t the truth, sir.
Mr. Moulder. What would you say?
Mr. Stenhouse. I also attended some similar meetings when I was in Washington, D. C.
Mr. Moulder. The committee will stand in recess until 2 o’clock.
(Whereupon, at 12:03 p. m., a recess was taken until 2 p. m. this same day.)