The Department's instruction was not actually dispatched until nearly two months after Emmanuel filed his new application. In last week's letter to Mrs. Hsley, L'Heureux said: "An appropriate instruction was therefore transmitted to Paris on August 31, 1949, for the guidance of the consular officer," with whom the final decision, L'Heureux said, legally rests.

On the same day, August 31, Emmanuel had decided that he could wait no longer. His job in France required a month's notice before leaving. He was due in Wellesley in September. He phoned Stanger and in effect withdrew his application a second time. This gave the Consulate, he writes, "the chance of not refusing my visa, without giving it."

Coincidence

There is no indication that Emmanuel's withdrawal and the dispatching of the instruction on the same day was any more than coincidence. Wellesley faculty members were disturbed, however, over what one of them termed "passing the buck:" That is, Paris officials stating that they had to wait for word from Washington while Washington was pointing out that the final decision was up the consular officials in France. Wellesley teachers are also indignant at the type of questioning Emmanuel was put through.

The most recent letters of the State Department, while explaining that Emmanuel did not get a visa because he withdrew his application before a decision had been made, nevertheless state that a decision was made; a decision that Emmanuel was "found to be inadmissible under our laws."

Legal Basis

One law, withs its amendments and one section of the Code of Federal Regulations are cited by the State Department as the legal basis for this decision. The law, enacted October 16, 1918, states, in part, that aliens "who are anarchists... (or) who believe in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States... (or) who are members of or affiliated with any organization that entertains a belief in, teaches or advocates (such overthrow) shall be excluded from the United States."

An amending act of June 5, 1920, gives one definition of such affiliation, but states that this "shall not be taken as an exclusive definition." This amendment implicity allows the authorities discretion in deciding who comes under its provisions.

The Alien Registration Act of June 28, 1940 extends the act of 1918 to "any alien who at any time shall be or shall have been" a member of, or affiliated with a group advocating violent overthrow.

The regulation cited by the State Department, Section 53.33 of Title 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations defines certain aliens whose entry is considered "prejudicial to the interests of the United States," and who are therefore to be excluded. These persons include members of or persons affiliated with organizations (1) associated with foreign governments "opposed to measures adopted by the Government of the United States in the interest of the United States," or (2) which work to "counteract the effectiveness" of U.S. measures.

And finally, L'Heureux has stated that persons who are or were Communist Party members, or affiliated with the Communist Party are considered excludable under the legislation.

Say He's No Red

Convinced that Emmanuel is neither a Communist nor a fellow-traveler, Wellesley authorities and other persons who know the poet do not believe that his wartime alliance with Communist Resistance fighters and writers should be held against him now.

They contend that by such a token every anti-Nazi was in some way affiliated with the Communists. They find it hard to believe that Emmanuel's presence at the funeral of a Communist or his official trip to Communist Eastern Europe brand him a Communist himself.

Emmanuel, according to Professor Breunig, is actually a Catholic mystic poet who is aligned with the Christian Socialists, a liberal movement opposed to both Capitalism and Communism: The name Pierre Emmanuel is a pen-name, symbolic of "the rock upon which his faith is founded" (Pierre) and God With Us (Emmanuel). (Pierre Emmanuel's original, and still legal name is Noel Mathieu.)