4 November 1952

The Honorable Dean Acheson

Secretary of State

Department of State

Washington, D.C.

My dear Sir:

I have learned recently that Stephen H. Fritchman, minister of the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles, was denied a passport, when he had been invited to address the Australian Unitarian Churches, in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the introduction of Unitarianism into Australia.

I am writing to express my strong feelings about the denial of this passport. I myself suffered great harm as a result of the denial of a passport to me this spring, when I had been invited by the Royal Society of London to take part in a special discussion meeting of the Royal Society on the structure of proteins, on 1 May. This harm has been diminished only in part by the subsequent issuance of a passport to me, permitting me to go to France and London to discuss scientific questions with scientists in these countries. No explanation of the denial and later issuance of a passport to me was given by the Department of State, and I conclude that a mistake was made by the Department when the passport was denied to me initially.

I feel that a similar mistake has been made in the case of Mr. Fritchman. I have known Mr. Fritchman for several years. I consider him to be a great man. He is one of the most honest, forthright, straightforward, and high-principled men that I have ever known. He is an honor to the United States of America - the world would be a great world indeed if one percent of its people were comparable to Mr. Fritchman.

Is the United States of America, through its passport policy, now going to interfere with religion in the way that it has interfered with the progress of science? Is the passport policy that has been pursued, and apparently is still being pursued, designed to suppress those conscientious ministers of the Gospel who are working for the welfare and happiness of human beings throughout the world?

I sincerely trust, for the sake of the United States of America, that the precedent that has been set by the Department of State in my case can be followed, and that Mr. Fritchman will be given his passport.

Yours truly,

Linus Pauling:W

4 November 1952

Mr. Stephen H. Fritchman

First Unitarian Church

2936 West Eighth Street

Los Angeles 5, California

Dear Mr. Fritchman:

I have come across your letter of 22 July, which awaited me for two months, until I returned from Europe.

I was sorry that it seemed necessary to me to reply to your cable by not accepting your kind offer to me to take part in the Forum this year, and to speak this fall. I found it necessary to leave for Europe on 15 July, with only four days' notice - I had not expected that the Department of State would reverse its decision about my passport. I had, in the meantime, agreed to do work during the summer (especially the revision of a book, which the publisher wished to put out in a second edition), and the trip to Europe necessitated my postponing this work. On my return to Pasadena I had not only this job to do, but all of the accumulated work of the summer, at the Institute; and I am sorry to say that I am still overwhelmed.

I feel very sympathetic to the Unitarian Church, however, and I should like to do my part. The letter of 22 July suggests that I be a speaker on the Forum during this season, and specifically that I speak on a second Friday night in any month from January through May, 1953.

I recognize that you probably have arranged your schedule completely. I, too, have some engagements - in particular, I have agreed to go to Belgium for a week, probably the first week in April, so that April would be ruled out for me.

Would you pass on to Mr. Mahoney the suggestion that if there is still an open date, I should be glad to appear on the Forum, provided that it does not conflict with an engagement already made. I am not suggesting days, because so far as I know now any second Friday from January to May, except April, would be satisfactory to me.

I was shocked indeed to learn about the refusal of a passport to you. I have written a letter of protest to the Secretary of State. It seems to me to be a more reprehensible action, on the part of the government, that was the refusal of a passport to me, a scientist.

Mr. Fritchman Page 2 4/11/52

There is one bit of information that I am happy to pass on to you. Professor Weber, of the University of Tübingen, extended to me a tentative invitation to come to Germany next summer. He said that he was hoping to arrange a German-American conference on the physiology and structure of muscle, and that he was going to ask the Unitarian Service Committee to bring me to Germany, in order to take part in this conference. I was greatly impressed by Professor Weber, when I met him in Paris this summer and I hope that this arrangement can be made.

With the expression of my sincere admiration for the forthright stand that you have continued to take on the important questions of the day, I am

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling:W