Meeting-Goer

Lillian Hellman, 46, the talented author of such Broadway and Hollywood hits as The Little Foxes and Watch on the Rhine, has quite a record of political activity outside the theater. Her sympathies for the world's downtrodden, by her own account, have led her twice to visit Russia. In 1945 she was the Soviet government's honored guest. Her sympathies have also led her to attend countless Red-inspired rallies and to lend her name to various Communist-front crusades. Playwright Hellman, who once described herself as "the greatest meeting-goer in the country," went last week to meet the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Pleading the possibility of selfincrimination, Lillian Hellman refused to say whether she had ever been a Communist Party member. Then Committee Chairman John Wood took over. To his barrage of questions, Playwright Hellman, an expert at smooth dialogue, replied that she is not a Communist now, was not yesterday, or a year ago, or two years ago. "Three years ago?" asked Wood. Witness Hellman refused to answer.

In a letter to Wood, Playwright Hellman had said that she would be willing to tell all about herself, unless that meant getting old associates in "bad trouble." In an odd illustration of her point, she refused to state whether she had ever known a screenwriter named Martin Berkeley, a "cooperative" witness who had helped get Lillian herself in trouble.

After she had been excused, Chairman Wood said gallantly: "Why cite her for contempt? After all, she's a woman . . ." And, as the record showed, a skilled playwright and a great meeting-goer.

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