Committee Gives Okay On Conant Appointment

President Conant won unanimous approval from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on his appointment as U.S. High Commissioner of Germany yesterday.

The result of the voting was no surprise after Conant's testimony before the committee on Tuesday.

Conant's nomination, together with that of Gen. Walter Bedell Smith as Undersecretary of State, will come before the Senate for confirmation tomorrow. Committee chairman Alexander Wiley R. Wis.) said he expected no difficulty.

Days of violent controversy over the Conant choice ended early this week when he replied to the four specific objections that had been raised to his appointment in his testimony before the committee.

McCarthy Hits Religious Views

Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R.Wis) charges Conant with religious bias on the basis of a speech he delivered in Boston last spring, which supposedly attacked Catholic parochial schools. Actually Conant explained, he objects only to public tax money being given to private schools.

Conant's alleged softness towards Communism was another major point of dissension in the fight for approval of his appointment. This charge was mainly the result of his views on congressional investigation of college faculties, and his article on radicalism published in the Atlantic Monthly.

He cleared himself on both counts, explaining that be objected to investigation only because he felt it would be necessary to adopt police state methods in the universities if hidden communists were to be ferreted out. Conant said his article had actually urged youth to return to the American tradition.

He also denied being influenced by the "vindictive" Morgenthau plan in forming his policies for the reconstruction of post-war Germany. The Morgenthau plan would have destroyed German industry and made the country a pastoral land.

A further objection to the appointment raised earlier was the unfavorable reception Conant would receive in Germany. Optimistic quote from German newspapers were used as rebuttal.