1 Feb. 1946, 1000-1215 hours there. I might explain that this diary contained nothing of a secret nature and was only a record of places I had been. Q. Then why destroy it? A. It had already been looked at by the American authorities and further, I did not consider it of much use, and as we had been told that the inspections we would go through would be very bothersome it was suggested that we carry no documents with us. Q. Who made that suggestion? A. There was a Swiss representative there, and I might explain again that all documents we had with us had been taken up by the American authorities and held for a period of three months, so that there was nothing which had not been examined. Further, all valuable documents were burned in Berlin long before we were ever in American hands. Q. One thing is not quite clear to me. You indicated a moment ago that the Swiss authorities suggested to you that you leave these documents behind, and almost in the same breath you said they were destroyed. Were they destroyed or left behind as the Swiss official suggested? A. There were 180 people there, all of whom had documents or diaries of one sort or another, which had been returned to us by the United States authorities. When we asked the Swiss representative whether he thought there would be another inspection when boarding the ship he said this might be possible, as it was another department of the Government, and there was no way of telling whether liaison had been maintained between them and the outfit that had seen the documents. It was, therefore, suggested that we leave all documents behind to be literally thrown away. Q. Do you know as a fact that those documents were destroyed or were they left in custody of these Swiss authorities? A. They were not left in the custody of anyone: they were thrown away into trash baskets, and whether they were burned or not I do not know. They could not be burned because after all we did not have that much freedom and further, they were not of enough value to merit burning. Q. Were they left at your quarters in Bedford? A. They were torn up and thrown into the waste baskets there. Q. What American authorities examined these documents when you first arrived in the United States? A. The Customs people in New York. Q. Did any officials from the State Department or other department of the Government of the United States see these documents if you know? A. I believe it was all handled by Army authorities. Q. Do you know who these Army authorities were or what branch of the Army they represented? A. I am afraid I do not know that. In explanation I might say that anything and everything that had any Japanese writing on it was taken from us, including such things as Japanese playing cards. Q. Who took them from you? By that I mean, be as specific as you can. A. Customs officials, I believe - they were dressed in civilian clothes. The three things that were taken from us were foreign valuables, weapons, and documents. 15