April 1952 - Linus Pauling Day-by-Day

April 12, 1952

F130-Pauling, Linus Carl

Mrs. R. B. Shipley

Passport Division

Department of State

Washington 25, D.C.

Dear Mrs. Shipley:

I am writing to ask that you reconsider the decision communicated to me in your letter of February 14, to the effect that a passport is not being issued to me since the Department is of the opinion that my proposed travel would not be in the best interests of the United States.

After receiving your letter I wrote, on February 29, to President Truman. I have received a letter from Mr. Hassett, stating that so much of my letter as deals with a request for the passport had been referred to the officials in the Department of State. I am not sure that a copy of the letter was sent to you by Mr. Hasett, and accordingly I enclose a copy.

I may say now that I have changed my plans somewhat, because of the uncertainty connected with the proposed travel. In order to decrease the number of engagements that I would be prevented from filling in case that my travel to Europe were not allowed, I have decided definitely not to attend the meeting of the International Union of Biochemistry in Paris in July. I have also decided to postpone until later my trip to Toulouse in order to receive formally the honorary doctorate degree of Docteur de l'Université that was awarded to me a couple of years ago by the University of Toulouse. My proposed travel, which according to earlier plans was purely for scientific purposes and a vacation for my wife and me, is now purely for scientific purposes and a vacation in England. We propose to fly from New York to London on Sunday, april 27, and to fly from London to New York on Sunday, June 8.

On May 1 I am scheduled to speak at the Royal Society Conference on the Structure of Proteins. This conference is the first international conference that has been held on this subject since Professor Corey and I discovered our structures for proteins, which were communicated in a series of papers a year ago. The date of the conference was changed to May 1 in order to permit my attendance, the date selected earlier having been one that conflicted with the meeting of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, which I feel that I should attend, because as Vice-President I am scheduled to preside at one of the sessions. I am also scheduled to give a Friday evening Discourse at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, on the subject of the structure of proteins on May 16. As a Foreign Member of the Royal Society and an Honorary Member of the Royal Institution, I would feel that my failure to fulfill my obligations to these two institutions would be discourteous.

In addition, I have been asked to speak on scientific subjects - the structure of proteins, in which the British scientists are keenly interested - at several universities.

My wife and I have accepted an invitation to be the guests for a week of Lord and Lady Rothschild, at Cambridge, and also to visit with Sir Robert Robinson and Lady Robinson, at Oxford.

I feel that it is my duty to point out that it is not my opinion that my proposed travel would not be in the best interests of the United States. I feel on the other hand that my proposed travel would be of significant benefit to the United States, and that the refusal of a passport to me would bring discredit upon the United States.

Since 1949 I have been under attack by Russian scientists and the Russian Academy of Science on the grounds that my contributions to the theory of resonance in chemistry have not been compatible with the ideological basis of Russian science. I feel that it would produce an unfortunate impression if there were to be official interference with the open discussion with my scientific colleagues in Great Britain of my work on the structure of proteins, a subject which is of importance to biology and medicine as well as to chemistry.

I remember with pleasure my earlier meeting with you, in 1947, when you kindly issued a passport tome on short notice, in order that my wife and I might go to England (and Sweden), when I had been offered an honorary doctorate by the University of Cambridge, to be conferred in the summer of 1947. May I ask that, in case there are any questions that you would like me to answer, you permit me to come to see you in Washington. My wife and I shall be in Washington on the afternoon of Monday, April 21, and throughout the day of Tuesday, April 22. We should be pleased to come to your office at any time during this period. I am scheduled to attend a meeting of a committee of the Office of Naval Research on Tuesday. As chairman of the committee, I should, I believe, be present at 9:30 A.M., in Building T-3, 17th and Constitution, in order to open the meeting, but I could turn the meeting over to an acting chairman at any time during the day, and come to your office at your convenience. It would be a pleasure for me to talk with you again, and I hope that you can spare me a few minutes on this day. We shall be staying at the Hay-Adams House in Washington.

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling:W

cc:JBK