Congressmen Request State Dept. to Get More Facts from Prague on Jordan’s Death

Two Congressmen demanded here today that the State Department act more forcefully on obtaining the facts surrounding the mysterious death of Charles H. Jordan. executive vice-chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, whose body was found in a river at Prague four days after he had vanished in the capital of Czechoslovakia. They are Rep. Richard Schweiker, who represents a district in Philadelphia, Mr. Jordan’s home town; and Rep. Seymour Halpern, of New York. Both are Republicans.

In a message to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Rep. Schweiker said the United States Government “must not be silent, when such irregularities surround the death of an American in a nation with which the United States maintains diplomatic relations.” He told Secretary Rusk that Congress and the American public were entitled to know the facts about Mr. Jordan’s death. He stressed that persons close to Mr. Jordan rule out the Czech conclusion of suicide. He pointed out that the river where the body was found was 3 miles away from Mr. Jordan’s hotel and that the Czechs had rushed an autopsy before others could make medical examinations.

Rep. Halpern criticized the State Department for failing to take a strong stand in the Jordan case, and said he was “fearful that the State Department is excessively timid in dealing with Czechoslovakia because of over-sensitivity to Communist propaganda attempts to link America with Israel and world Jewry in the wake of the Middle Eastern war.”

In a letter to Secretary Rusk, Mr. Halpern said that “failure to take a strong stand in this issue may have the effect of tempting the Communists to further excesses.” He told Mr. Rusk that “Czechoslovakia should be added to the list of totalitarian countries which the State Department advises Americans not to visit for their personal security, including Communist China, Cuba, Egypt, Syria and others.”