Greedy Seek To Keep Nisei Away, Says Ickes

WASHINGTON, April 4. -- (AP) -- Interior Secretary Ickes expressed confidence today that the people of the West would not long tolerate any campaigns of "economic greed and ruthless racial persecution" against Japanese-Americans seeking to return to their former homes.

Ickes reiterated, however, in a letter to C.C. Schneider of Gresham, Ore., secretary of the Oregon Property Owners' Protective League, that the War Relocation Authority is encouraging the displaced Japanese-American population to locate elsewhere. The letter was made public by Senator Cordon, Republican, Oregon.

"I have been profoundly disturbed by the activities of certain unprincipled groups in Oregon, Washington and California which are seeking, by illegal means, to nullify the decision of the War Department and prevent the return of the evacuees to their rightful homes when they want to return," Ickes wrote.

"I realize that these groups represent only a small minority of the population of your state and of the other coastal states, but their campaigns of undisguised economic greed and ruthless racial persecution, have shocked and outraged good Americans in every section of the nation. I am confident that their plans and stratagems will not long be tolerated by the overwhelming majority of straight-thinking and fundamentally decent people in the three Pacific States."