Evening star., 1940-12-22
Un-Americun
(Continued From First Page.)


Dies Committee, and the introduc-
ton of the bill represents part OF
the effort being made to bring about
cooperation between all Govern
ment agencies working in the gen
eral field of the protection of the
Nation at this time"
The five unidentified witnesses
were picked from vantage points in
the aircraft industry in Southern
California where big pursuit plane
crashed last month during an ex-
perimental flight after five separate
acts of sabotage upon it allegedly
had been discovered and supposedly
remedied.
Would Extend Bill.
Under existing law sabotage Is a
Federal crime only when it is COM
mitted upon materials intended for
use by the United States in connec-
ton with national defense plans or
upon utilities supplying services to
such plants.
Representative Voorhis said his
bill would make no change in the
penalties or the general structure of
existing law, but would extend it to
include material manufactured in
plants intended for export to foreign
countries.
The statement issued by Mr.. Voor-
his read in part:
"As result of the suggestion of
the Attornev General indicating thai
the authority of the Department of
Justice is not broad enough to en-
able it to proceed in cases where
an act of sabotage is committed
against articles being manufactured
for export on order from other
governments, r shall introduce on
Monday next bill carefully pre-
pared in Cooperation with Depart
ment of Justice experts, which will
correct this matter by amending an
act already on the statute books in
such way as to broaden its appli-
cation as suggested by the Attorne,
General"
Proposed as Amendment.
The Voorhis bill will be proposed
as an amendment to an act of
Congress approved shortly after the
United States entered the World
War in 1917 which prescribed pun
ishment for "acts of interference
with the foreign relations, the neu-
trality. and the foreign commerce
of the United States, to punish espi-
onage, and better to enforce the
criminal laws of the United States
s.*"
The text of the proposed legis-
lation follows:
whoever, with intent to prevent,
interfere with, or obstruct or at
tempt to prevent, interfere with
or obstruct the expectation to for.
eign countries of articles from the
United States shall injure or destroy
any article intended for expectation
or any place, or any machinery,
appliance or thing therein contained
where any such article may be, or
is being produced, manufactured,
repaired, stored, mined, extracted,
distributed, loaded, unloaded, or
transported, shall be punished by
imprisonment for not more than 20
years and may, in the discretion of
the court, be fined not more than
$4,000"
Committee to Get Record.
Though withheld from the press,
the complete record of the testi-
mony of the five mysterious wit
nesses will be placed before the full
committee as promptly as possible,
it was said, even though copies may
have to be sent to those members
who went home for the Christmas
holidays.
Several of the witnesses, it is un-
derstood, were key men in the plant
which manufactured the British
pursuit plane that crashed and in
which, previous disclosures brought
out, there existed a "Nazi clique
whose actions had been brought
under protracted investigation.
Chairman Dies of the full COM
mittee investigating subversive ac-
tivities, recently declared this ''Nazi
clique" was employed in highly
strategic" positions in the aircraft
plant