, 

,, 

.. 

t.Ua-~i1.Fb$r 6Pt:- • 

Duclos :Called 

In Probe of 

n 

·ci 

l 

pl 

pl 

ti I 

n 

$, 

.'] 

No. 2 French Red\.>) ~ 

Must Testify ~n 1 ~' ;,/ 1 

Theft of Secrets VJ' 9 . 

\

he (Picture on Page 8.) ~ · ay PARIS, Oct. 4 nPl.-Jacques I] 

p."n Duclos, Communist Party· sec- ~. ~k- retary and France'.s No. 2 Red, 3 

kd ,was requested tonight to tes- I 

\as tify in the ~tolen def~nse se- q 

\R. crets case in a dramatic move ~ 

r 

which might discredit the pow- i · erful party. , ~ - Also requested to appear be- i ce fore the Paris Military Tribu- \ 

pe nal. investigating the · scandal i: 

. r1:1 was Emmariuel'D'Astier de la I 

D\l· vt.gerie, president of the .;~el- ~ n- l q w-t r av e 1 in g Prog~ess~ve t\ ~· Party whose · Commumst-hne · l ~~ newspaper was. taided earlier r\ 

·d today. . c 1 The two men, both m_embers ! 

\ of parliament, were asked to ri. 

in appear Wednesday be.fore ~aj. Do. in Pierre Bernard de Ressugmer. 1 

[U Police sources said it Was like- P\ 

're ly they, would be confronted f'.i 

ye with double agent Andre Bar- d\ 

··\y anes, ·and Roger Labtusse, .one le/ · of two ·high government offi- o 

1

d cials under arrest. 

at Baranes, who· confessed he li 

\n was a "pipe line" through ! 

1e which France's,highest de,fense ll 

'Y secrets were transmitted to 

i- the Communist Party, was em· i 

\ ployed by D' Astier d~ la V~ge- l\ 

.g rie's newspaper, Liberat10n, 

:d until ·his arrest. · · · \ ~- .Police rushed through the . it editorial rooms of . the news- l ' 1

d paper today. and .the~ raid~d l, 

·\e the director's home, Fifteen m- I 

\ spectors of the DST (Directioi;t. ~ · 11 de· la Surveillance du Terri-. 0

, 

~ toire) studied,. documents fo~ t·\ 

n further evidence of Baranes 

\. guilt. ·. S, 

'e D'Astier de la Vigerie, head Fi 

\; of a four-man· parliamentary ~ 

1 party w~ich. vo~es the solid. \ \ Commumst lme,is the .husband e.\ - of Lioubova Krassine, daughter . ~ of Soviet 'Russia's first ambass11:- tfi' 

L dor. to France. 1 L Duclos who returned from S\ t Moscow 'Friday, is a National' Bl ~ Assembly deputy. As such he a 

i has parliamentary immunity ij 

!

', which· means he cannot be , forced to testi~y un_less ~i~ fel- ~\. l low deputies lift his privilege. , h The same immunity is held by "'1 

il D'Astier de la Vigerie. al I But a refusal in a case in: t er- valving national defense se- 11 al crets would harden public ti 

p- opinion against the Coinmu- d 

le nists and . be ·almost the same ti 

\ as an admissi_oi;i of . guilt, ac- 1 rs cording to pohtical circles. \ \ In another development, 

' Mme. Lucienne Metivier-Las- ~ seron, a former code clerk, l?ld Ii 

investigators the Commumsts ~I had ,cracked a secret code at 1 

the Defense Ministry which. ti 

allowed them to ga_in informa- \ 

\ tion on the Indochina war. 

c j 

[ T 0 B E R ; 4 , : . I 9 5 4~) 

I ~~?1-~41~~P 

· Pari~ L~ak ___ · j 

Of Secrets ] 

Is Solved I 

Edito.r Confesses l 

,fl D~ Gave Vital . .} 

efens.e Daia· · J 

To Commμ~ists j 

·. ~A~IS, Oct. 3 (U.P.>.-The .-

~npgp~n in France's ~sfofon 

def ens!'! secrets scandal. confe.ssed to . s e ~re t service 

~gen~s t?day that he· pipe.d 

mfo~mation to the · Coin- v1 

mumst party from highest G 

l~vel national. defense coun- _111· 

c1l me·etings. 

. There .were persistent pro- a te~ts that t})e Communist Viet- ' 

mmh in I!1dochina ·learned 11' 

so.~e of - France's top secre~ 

mihtary decisions·. almost as I 

soon ~s they were made by the 5 

/

:.. cou.11cll, the ·French eqti.ivale. nt i 

. of the Unite.d States National ~ Security Council T.he r. · case ' 

I

. shocked France as much as the ·t 

Al~er Hiss case did the Uiiited J' 

States. · . · . 

._( A:r:i~re l:!ara~es,. a 38-;e·ar-old J 

. Tum.sia~-born editor ;admitt d 1' freely l' · ' e · , . .Po. ice said, ~ha·t he· was j the P!Pl.me through which 1 

Frances innermost defense se- ' c~ets we~e transmitted. from .; Ii 

lugh government officials to 

the Communist Party -·and to i 

the Kremlin. · 1 

ll, Red Leaders Helped .Him i 

/d · He _als? confessed Lhat some Ii 

n- of _this mformation lrnd b ' ~l delibe~a~el~· . "leaked" back e~~ ' 

' a_uth~nties here to sow confu- 1· 

,1e s10n m France and undermine 

11· t~e government. of Premier re Piere Mendes-France in an ef I 

·j fort to bring about its down: 

fall. . . J 

lS H · . ' e said French Communist f· le~~ers themselves helped him 1 

L" falsify docull1cnts fo look as if l 

lo they. came from "inside" €om- / 

'y· !11-umst· meetings and to make rs it .appe~r. t!Je _Communist ·knew . 1 

l- ~verythmg gomg on in the gov- 0. e_,rnment. · · · ·: 

! .· B_arane;s said he received his· 

I mform~t10n from ~ wo high go -~ 

~ ernment officials,_ both of who~ : were al:-resteq Friday and 'ivho s :• confes~ed. they had passed . in- ~ f?~mat1011 t9 Baranes. Both of: 

' f1cials were described as "cryp- - ~ to-Communists".- men com- I ~- pletely ~ympathetic with. ~he J i- Commu.mst-cituse. . . ·· . , 5 Th~ two n;ien were Rene J. -/ 

[I T~rpm, 42, trusted cabinet 

l chief of the ministry's perma- ] 

;· n e n t . secretary-general a n d ~ Roger ~· _Labrusse; 40, head of I 

0 the . nnmstry's civil· defense ] s service., Both had access to the 

e recOJ.~ds, of the top-level coundl 

e meetmgs headed by President 

I Re11:e . Coty_ and including the n Premier, ·his· top ministers and , generals. ~~--,---------1Jli 

~ Tells Ab~t Troa.)ls Ll 

Jf · The case was as if a Commu- W. 

,d nist spy ring passed along in- ci :~ formation discussed at a meet- re , ing- of President Eisenhower fil 

iY with the National Security th'. 

1P Council in Washington. . mi 

,>t Information included dispo- ! 

st sition of the French troops in pa 

! Iildochina, troop reinforce-ment wi. 

in Tunisia and strategic ques- dd 

tionll raised by France's defeat hd 

of the European army plan.· · 

l Some of the information was soi 

funneled to the. Reds during De 

1 

• the Geneva conference which mi 

rg ended the Indochina war and acl 1,ci was believed to have helped al ~f the Communist Vietminh in its a~,· 

1

1

. latter da:v. viCtories. : •. Baranes was arrested yester- re f day at a provinciaLBenedictine a~ b monastery near the Swiss bor- ni 

h dei; where he had sought sane- iq ~ tuary to become "converted,~ dl I He was taken before a ·military rn ~t instructing magistrate today J 

1 after questioning and charged t~ 

(: with attempts against 'the ex- rrl 

f· ternal security .of the state. ol 

p· ·Penalty is one to 10 years im- a]· it prisonment with death possible · ~- if it can be proved his -spying E1J 

. , • aide!f a "foreign power." P 

,n- The case was. broken last ~e we.ek . when Police Inspector ~ Jean Dides was arrested on I 

~L charg~s of having stolen docu- l 

ments in his possession. 4 . ~ 

. . ~ 
, . I ~...___===""' . 

FRENCH ,RED-AG_ENT A 

DENIES'.UUAL ROLE I 

IN SEGRE.TS THEfil ·J 

,j{.,I Y u_ y,q~ ~ CJc:,, -

Worked Only for Comirtunist · 

Party, He s"ays~Charged 

With Harming Security~ 

· ·Sped al to The New York Times. · • 

PARIS,' Oct. 3-~dre Baranes, 

newspaper. tipster, was,charged 

today with. harming. the security 

of ·the .·State ' by transmittin 

Government~ s~crets to unqualified persons. 

M. Baranes, who was al'rested · 

yesterday as the principal intermediary in_ the Fren·ch security 

leaks, told· secret service investigators that although some of his 

actions seemed to indicate tliat 

he had been a ·double . agent, he 

had worke~ only for. the French 

Communist party.· 

He adrn,itted having also given 

secret defense · doc1UI1ents · to an 

anti-Communist· police ·inspector, 

Jean . Dides, . but said · that the 

Communist· leaders· knew· ··this. 

M. Baranes a:sserted that the 

Communists warited the French 

• authorities to learn through M: 

Dides that ~e Comml_\nist party 

was fully i.J:tformed on the state 

of France's defenses. 

It is ·considered he intended 

to imply that disclosure of the 

leaks was airrled to influence negotiations for the Indochina 

peace and to convince French 

I allie~ that the French cause in 

~ North Vietnam was J:iopeless. 

New Dificulty for Premier I , ' !'-~,.:•J-t"-:11L~" ~ .. :"' -

The announcement- that the . 

Commu~ist pa~ty haa ·e~t~~iished \ 

d a direct pipeline il"\~o the chief 1'i 

· coordinating center: of' French fi 

national. defense .. }]~s created ·a I 

delicate situation · :ftn"'-~Premier I I ·- . Pierre Mendes-Fran~e on 'h"\s re- ~ 

turn from the London conferenee · 

on Germany's rea\:mihg. Jean ' 

Turpin an·d Roger rl.abrusse, two TO 

of the chief officiaJJ. of .the'. C~m.:- . 5 mittee of National.Defense, have!' . 

Y ·b~en: ar~·ested as re.1 spon_ sible ·"fa~ - ! 

\I th~ leaks, and Jean }rons,-chi:ef oi . .. 1 the Defense SE;cretai-!at; _ha,s b.e~1* Met ~- suspended for hegligenc·e.-'"These . , I ~ officials had been long 'in office, -RI 

t and the disclosures· to the Com-

'1. munists has startea' under a pre-

;, vious Government. But the Pre-

:l mier now has to convince the.Na- E 

. tional Assembly ~h~t t_h!) Coinmu- J - nist access to official mformat10n F 

i. has been broke!i up. Mel 

. M, Bara,nes, who went into hid- mol - ing for a week, was apprehended Na,' 

s yes.terday in a monastery at La to 1 

,J Pierre-Qui-Vire, in Burgundy, pea' 

where he had soug~t refu&"e, and in !. 

3. was brought to Paris and ques- ,; 

s tioned throughout the night. en; - M. Bararies told security agents 1 ; 

a and repeated _t~ the _ military· ;; I r magistrate i~vestigatmg t~e tht 

leaks; that he had obtained his 10 ~: 

e informatio·n fron~ .M. Labr~sse, 'j' 

l- chief of, the section of national rei 

.t protection in the Defj!USe Com- d/ 

g imttee. M. Labrusse h~d o~tained / - it rfom M. Turpin, who, 1t was 

e declared, had ilever.'had ·contac1 

.~ Vvith M. ~ll.ranes. The Jatt~r 7/ 

Continued on Page 3, Colmw . .-:-:=;/ -~-~ 

REF ID : 416~iP!ffiNCH RED AGENT -

{ ('·DENIES DUAL ROLE 

Continued Fr~m-Page 1 

' that sometimes M. ·. Labrusse 

came and dictated the information to him and sometimes it. was 

.conveyed thro'ugh other persons. 

Tre police did not make public H all that M. Baranes had said 

\!i -about how he had ·distributed the 

secrets. He said he 'had taken it 

.first to' the 'communist party 

headquarters., . · 

. Later he admitted. having also 

informed M. Dides, l;>ut he said 

that the Communists had· previously altered some of ·the con- tents, and that they knew he 

would take· it to the police inspector. Inspector Dides .on sev- eral · occasions inform'ed the 

French Ministry of Interior about 

the Communist knowledge of defense secrets, and ustd the information in his anti-Communist 

police network. 1 , J 

M. Baranes and some of the ac- cused members of the Defense ll 

Committee have been said to ~ · have been .identified with the i 

Pr6gressist party, a group affili- t 

ated with the Communists. ....J 

The Progressist headquarters I 

denied,' however, that any of the E 

accused .men had ever. be.en mem- 1 hers of the party. · · (l 

Tipster Professed Loyalty I . To M. Dides M. Baranes professed to be a Communist opposed to Moscow, and to Deputy D. 

Andre Hughes, who had agreed Ji 

to harbor him in hiding, he had ca 

professed to loyalty to France. dE 

He was saiq .to have told M. fs' 

Hugues that he· was su_spici.eus I 

of members of ;the Defense Com- w• 

mittee, and wanted to know Di 

! whether the United States would I, j 

/ protect him if ·he exposed them. Ao 

· The f. ormer Tunisian newspaper Aj' ' man showed signs of great fa- 1 tigue and anxiety concer:iing· his Is, 

I case. He apparently realized the er 

I gravity .of the charges .against P! 

him, which .might be punished by oj 

I 

death.in· the event that. it should ci 

be proved tha_t he had connived in ir! 

conveying the information to a / 

f foreign state. r: 

I He appeared to have believed ti 

that-possibly through his rela- ii 

tions with M. Dides-he had been a: i under the pr;otection _of the po- y_ -

1 

lice. Under questioning, however, n 

- he showed no unwillingness to I l talk. . : ~ 1 The offense with which M. Ba- t 

} rones is .charged is punishable by JI 

[. one to ten years fa prison. ' · j 
REF ID:A4163740 

I 

pvl ES HE RA L D ',w eefne~day, October 6; i954 

Pai·is.Leal{ Principal·Says 'Secl~ets' \Vei~e Only ·Ti~i:via . . . . . . . . 

PARIS, Oct. 5 !il'l.-The 'ke"y quoted Baranes as· shying in his. wei:e g1V1ng the irnportant in- offici~ls said.Labrusse admitted-= 

figure in France's ·growing spy latest version: · formation to the Reds: He told giving sofoe - data· on council:;;; a· d tod h did i't P s "I admitted everything to the the magistrate: mee.tings to Baranes as ·an "in':':'. case s 1 _ay e 1 a s D.S.T. (Military Counter-Espio- ·"These are· powerful people. tellectually sympathetic". ·re_:~~ 

along an_y big secrets to the nage Service). This was after Find them yourself." . · porter for ~ ''.progressive" Jqur·-

Commumsts after all - only v_ery long hours of interroga• · Bara:nes made the ·case a nal. The c1v1l . servant de111ed.-: 

stale bits that made No .. 2 Red twn. But· w.e are· not,, t(le true sensation when he recently however, handmg any defens~ 

leader Jacques Duclos laugh. authors of the le<lkS. stated. he had received defense documents to Baranes. . -:-

. Andre Baranes, reportey for Bai;anes said he .reported secrets from Rober Labrusse, a Labruss~ and a_ subordrna.ter.:;;: 

. the fellow-traveling newspaper what he had learned abqut de- high civil servant .. · Jea~ Turpm, are charged \~1th~ 

(\ Liberation; who previously ad- fense plans to ~uclos Ill the - Labrus?e· himself was ques· passing defense information to;:.:; i ·,.: mitted obtaining vital FFench latter's office, addmg: . tioned at length today and, ac- unauthorizec:l persons. Thei1·= 

i". defense secrets for the Com- "He laughed in my face and cordmg to court officials, de- chief, Jean Mons, secretary;;;;; 

WiJ munists, modified his story to- told me, '\Ve .1lready have nied furnishing any informa- general of the Defense Council;-: .... 

'LV day under questioning by that.' " tion over an extended period is charged with negligence in:: 

" Magistrate Jean 'de Resseguier. Baranes implied that high to the Communist Party as speaking of'council matters ·to::::: , Persons at the closed hearing French figures yet unnamed char~ed by Baranes. The court Turpin. ~ "2 - . . ...-... 

~~. ... • ' !.