OUSTER OF CONSUL WHO 'QUIT' BARED
Official at Munich Had Faced Morals Charges
WASHINGTON, April 20-(A)Charles W. Thayer was "separated" from his post as consul general at Munich last month on the basis of moral charges, Undersecretary of State Donald Lourie testified today.
B.
Lourie said Thayer was ordered: home for removal and resigned rather than take advantage of an opportunity to appeal. The "morals charges" were not defined.
Lourie gave the information under questioning by Senator McCarthy (R.-Wis.) who promptly
demanded to know who wrote what McCarthy called a "completely false" State Department press release saying Thayer had resigned.
The resignation was announced
March 26 in Munich. Both the press office there and the State
Department here said Thayer wanted to give his full time to writing.
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Relative of Two, Ambassadors The Munich office said the resignation was submitted voluntarily, after a new investigation of Thayer had been ordered. The State Department's press officer, Lincoln White, said he did not know whether the resignation had been requested.
Thayer is a brother-in-law of Charles E. (Chip) Bohlen, new ambassador to Soviet Russia whose confirmation McCarthy opposed, and a son-in-law of James Dunn, ambassador to Madrid.
Lourie, under questioning by a Senate appropriations subcommittee considering state department appropriations, was asked by McCarthy to verify that "Thayer was called home, informed he would be dismissed, and he resigned on security grounds."
"He was called here and had an opportunity to appeal and he resigned," Lourie said. The term "security grounds" was not used, Lourie said. He added he could: not recall the exact term.
"The situation was this," Lourie continued, "he was separated on a basis of morals charges-I don't believe that was the wording, I'm groping for the wording-and he resigned."
19 Out as Homosexuals Robert W. Scott McLeod, the State Department's new security officer, disclosed today the "separation" of 19 department employees from the payroll on homosexual charges since he took over March 3.
McLeod also told the subcom-
mittee that, in employing the new security criteria, soon to be, made! effective by President Eisenhower in all branches of government, 14 other persons were separated for reasons of unsuitability.
There were four resignations on security grounds by employees who quit rather than face charges, he said. During this same period, McLeod testified, "we've rejected 54 applicants for jobs on security grounds."