Mr. Chaplin Against his Deportation – originally published in the Manchester Guardian, June 14, 1947
“Usual Fascist Technique”
Hollywood, June 13
Mr. Charles Chaplin to-day described the suggestion that he should be deported from the United States as “the usual Fascist technique in trying to suppress free speech.”
The demand for his deportation was made in the House of Representatives yesterday by Mr. John Rankin (Democrat, of Mississippi, former chairman of the Committee for Un-American Activities), who described Mr. Chaplin’s Hollywood life as “detrimental to the normal fabric of America.” Mr. Rankin pointed out that Mr. Chaplin (who was born in London) is still a British citizen after living for 37 years in the United States. “By deporting him he can be kept off the American screen and his loathsome pictures can be kept from the eyes of American youth.”
The “New York Daily News” carries a report that Mr. Chaplin and Mr. Edward G. Robinson and the writer Miss Dorothy Parker would be subpoenaed by the Committee for Un-American Activities to answer charges about Communist activities in Hollywood. The Committee will begin its investigation on September 18. — Reuter.
