PLANS FOR EVACUATING ALIENS TOLD

By Associated Press.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 23.--The government wants to handle evacuation of enemy aliens with the least possible hardship on the persons affected.

That was established clearly today as a congressional committee resumed its inquiry into problems related to removal of Japanese, Germans and Italians from areas of military and strategic operations.

Mayor Frank Gaines of Berkeley, one of today's witnesses, said he hoped that aliens evacuated could be put to some productive endeavor, so the expense to the government would be less, and so the aliens would not be destitute at the end of the war."

To this Representative John H. Tolan, Democrat, California, chairman of the committee, commented "we have to think of reprisals, too: in Japan and Singapore, for instance. We also have to live here in the future. The problem is to determine how best we can handle the situation with the least hardship possible."

Mayor Gaines suggested that the aliens be divided into three categories -- dangerous, suspicious and friendly. He would let the federal agencies handle the first two groups. As for the third -- he cited expatriated Jews from Germany as in this class -- he would let local police determine their degree of friendliness, in the belief that police have a closer knowledge of the people.

Chairman Tolan commented: "I think you are right."

John Hassler, Oakland city manager, said he felt the best way to handle the situation would be to evacuate all Japanese, regardless of whether they asserted their loyalty. He said he believed the Japanese could best show their loyalty by leaving the proscribed areas at the government request. They could return later if their loyalty was determined by investigation. On the other hand, he would have Germans and Italians investigated before they were removed.

The committee was eager to hear from Tom C. Clark, western coordinator of alien evacuation, who was flying here from a conference in Washington, D.C.

Mayor's Advice Sought

cities, from Protestant clergymen interested in preventing unnecessary hardships in the removal of alien families, and from officers of the Japanese-American Citizen's League.

Chairman Tolan, after a weekend conference with Lieut. Gen. John L. DeWitt, commanding general of the Western Defense Command and Fourth Army, said the committee had been informed that alien evacuation would proceed step by step, with no mass removals planned, but that specific methods would be outlined later by Washington.

Because Clark, western co-ordinator of alien evacuation, might be in a position to disclose what removal arrangements might have been devised, the committee made special efforts to obtain his testimony.