The Gentle One

As a correspondent in the Far East, slim, modest Gene Symonds rose rapidly in the United Press. Right after World War II and a stint on Stars and Stripes, he went to Ohio State University for a year, then in 1947 covered the Ohio legislature in Columbus for U.P. Symonds moved to New York, was working on the U.P/s foreign desk when the Korean war broke out. Unmarried, he volunteered to go to the Far East, became a war correspondent, manager for the Philippines

CORRESPONDENT SYMONDS "I have an important job to do."

in 1951, and Southeast Asia manager three years later. Wherever he went Symonds showed a rare sympathy for the impoverished, war-torn Asians he met and wrote about. "He was always sympathetic and respectful to them," says one correspondent who worked with him, "and that's more than a lot of us were."

Last week in Singapore, covering Communist-led political riots, Correspondent Gene Symonds left the American Club and headed for the scene of the trouble to talk to some of the rioters. His cab was stopped at two police roadblocks, but Symonds ordered the driver on. At the second, he told four constables standing in his way: "I have an important job to do." When the car got close enough for Symonds, he handed the driver his card, told him, "In case I don't come back this way, come to the office in the morning to get paid." Then, on foot, he headed toward the center of the crowd.

Hysterical rioters grabbed him, threw him to the ground, began beating him with clubs and stones.

Several hundred yards away, the police saw what was happening. But they had been ordered not to leave their posts under any circumstances, and instead of going to his aid they radioed headquarters.

By the time the police van arrived, Symonds was lying unconscious on the ground. Fifteen hours later. Gene Symonds. 28, died of a fractured skull, the 13th U.S. correspondent to be killed in Far Eastern war and violence since the end of World War II.

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