The Press: Illegal Journey

For nine days the S.S. Akbel had followed its secret, zigzag route. To reach port, the battered little steamer had to duck patrolling British warships, steer clear of British radar stations ashore, elude R.A.F. planes on 24-hour alert. Last week the Akbel made harbor in Haifa, Palestine. Among 1,100 “illegal” Jews who stepped onto the Promised Land, all but one were refugees.

The exception, Washington Correspondent I. F. (“Izzy”) Stone was aboard for Manhattan’s tabloid PM. Presumably with the aid of U.S. Zionists, he had joined an illegal group “somewhere in Europe,” accompanied them from station to station by land, and through the British blockade by sea. For hardworking, squirrelly, 38-year-old Izzy Stone, whose usual dish of tea is badgering U.S. Secretaries of State at press conferences, it was an offbeat adventure. For PM, which makes a play for New York City’s 2,000,000 Jews, Izzy’s journey had the promise of some first-rate news beats.