37 Years

ARMY & NAVY

A 40-year hard labor sentence for Private 6,346,392 (Paul Crouch) and one of 26 years for Private 6,112,765 (Walter Trumbull), stationed in Hawaii (TIME, Apr. 20), were reduced to three years and one year respectively.

The technical crime: Disrespect to the U.S.

The real crime: Communistic sympathies.

The evidence: A letter to Moscow intercepted by Army Intelligence Officer Eugene M. Fisher, Colonel. Also alleged dicta such as "Damn the U.S.," reported by the colonel.

The trial and original sentences were by court martial; the review and reduction were by Major General Willfam R. Smith, commanding Schofield Barracks, Honolulu. The case was then referred to Judge Advocate General John A. Hull, Washington.

Said Private Crouch: "Our 'propaganda' consisted largely of letters to a local newspaper correcting absurd misstatements about Russia, such as a story that Trotzky had banished Kremlin,*-the War Minister."

*Not the name of a statesman: Kremlin means the citadel of a town or city, more specifically the large Moscow inclosure' containing palaces, cathedrals, an arsenal; now the seat of the Soviet Government.