A young Czech political refugee has just sent us a letter telling of the continuing hunger for uncensored information behind the Iron Curtain. It reports how a small courageous group of Czechs still manages to get news from the outside world, despite the ban which was imposed on TIME, LIFE and 25 other foreign publications 18 months ago at the time of the Communist coup.

Roman J. Halla, 23, arrived in the U.S. a few weeks ago after a year spent as a D.P. in Germany, where he worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Army while waiting for his chance to come here. When the Communists took over Czechoslovakia, Halla was a student at Prague's famed, freedom-loving Charles University, from which he was promptly expelled for demonstrating with other students against the new Communist regime. At this juncture, foreign publications, including TIME, were admitted to the country but never reached the newsstands. Halla believed the bundles were destroyed when they reached the border--a procedure that permitted effective censorship of democratic journals while allowing the Communists to claim that freedom of the press was being maintained. At the end of February, 1948, however, TIME was banned for keeps. But some copies managed to get through, and Halla sometimes saw them.

About that time, he began working for an underground paper, For Freedom, which was distributed to 2,500 Czechs three or four times a week, depending on the availability of newsprint and a printing plant. Halla wrote articles, many of them based on "Voice of America" broadcasts which the editors were able to get despite Russian jamming; he also translated the news in TIME. "It was one magazine that was still free, democratic," he said.

"Its articles were most important to us who wanted true news."

Fortunately Halla was never caught with a copy of TIME or his clandestine newspaper. Several of his friends (there were 15 editors in all) have since been arrested and the paper, he fears, was forced to suspend. He feels sure, however, that TIME articles found their way into other illegal leaflets and publications, not only in Czechoslovakia but in many other Communist-dominated countries. "The oppressed people of all Europe are looking up to your magazine," he said. "I know because I was one of them."

In view of his youth and what he has been through, it is not surprising that Halla has come to some gloomy conclusions about Europe's future. War within three years, said Halla--and Russia would have "little difficulty" in overrunning Europe. But he felt certain that Russia would not win. He compared Russia with Germany on the eve of World War II and predicted: "Peace will never be gained with the Communists by peace methods."

In the U.S., where he lives with his mother and brother in a suburb of Wilmington, Del., Halla has been most impressed by "the stores, the traffic and the friendly people who have been so helpful to me." He hopes to get into a U.S. medical school soon where he can complete his interrupted education. Meanwhile, he has scheduled talks on his experiences abroad and on foreign relations.

One of his experiences certainly shows that there are a few rust spots in the Iron Curtain.

Cordially yours,

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