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CAPTURED AIRMEN
MAY BE FREED
WASHINGTON, Wed.-Four American
airmen held in Hungary might be freed as soon
as they had served their purpose as Communist
propaganda, U.S. officials said today.
The four men were arrest
ted when Russian fighters
forced down their C-47
transport plane on Novem
ber 19 after they became lost
over Hungary.
The Kremlin had tried to
use the incident to support
tharges in the United Nations
that the United States had
earmarked 100,000,000 dol
lars in foreign aid to stir up
a rebellion behind the Iron
Curtain.
Tass, the Soviet newsagency,
claimed that the transport was
forced down because it was
carrying equipment for Ame
rican "spies and saboteurs"
operating in Russian satellite
countries.
U.S. officials described these
charges as "so patently false"
that even the Communists
could not swallow them.
They said that one factor
suggesting possible early free
dom for the American airmen
was that Hungary had not
filed any espionage charges
against the prisoners.
U.S. diplomats also recalled
the Czechs' fairly prompt re
lease of two Allied planes
and their pilots last summer
after an angry exchange of
charges and counter-charges.
There was a fear in some
quarters, however, that the
Hungarians might hold the
airmen as hostages until the
United States paid off on
promises they claimed that it
failed to keep following the
release of the American busi
ness man, Mr. A. Vogeler.
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