Evening star., 1941-01-13
SupreneCourt
Upho|ds Spies
Conviction
Tribunal Also Agrees
To Review Litigation
In N. L. R. B. Case
BY J. A. FOX.

The Supreme Court today upheld
the conviction of two men on espio-
mage charges for obtaining in
formation from United States
Naval Intelligence files in San
Pedro, Calf, for the benefit of the
Russian government.
The court also agreed to review liti-
cation involving the right of the La
Dor Board to order employment of
men allegedly denied work because
of union membership. The case
came upon a Government appeal
from a decision of the Federal Cir
cult Court of New York holding the
board was without this power.
The board contended that the
two mer had been denied employ
ment because of union member
ship at Bisbee (Ariz) copper
mine owned by the Phelps Dodge
Corp. of New York, where an un-
successful strike was staged in 1885.
These men had left the mine prior
to the strike. The corporation
joined the board in urging the re-
view, which also involves an order
to re-employ strikers.
Tried Under 1917 Act.
The defendants in the espionage
case are Hafis Salich, a Russian
born naturalized American employe
of The naval intelligence Office, and
Mikhail Nicholas Gorin, Russian
citizen who has been employed in
Los Angeles as director of the local
Office of Intourist, Inc, a subsidiary
of Amtorg Trading CoHp. They were
arrested in 1888
The men were tried under the
Espionage Act of 1917, the allegation
being that Salich copied matter in
the intelligence Office files and sold
it to CORN. They set up in defense
that the indictment put too broad
a construction on the act, holding
that it was only designed to cover
information concerning places and
things described specifically in the
leglslation-such as a vessel, air
craft, fort. signal station code or
signal book.
No Dissent Is Announced.
An examination of the words of
the statute satisfies us that the
meaning of national defense lin the
act) cannot be limited to the places
and things specified said the opin-
ion of the court delivered by Justice
Reed. No dissent was announced.
but Justice Murphy did not par
ticipate.
The Government declared that the
information turned over to Gorin
was TO be used to the advantage of
Russia and to the injury of this
country. Gorin was fined $4,000
and sentenced to six years in prison
and Salich was fined $4,000 and
sentenced to four years, when tried
in the Federal District Court for
the Southern District of California
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit upheld the conviction.
The majority of the intelligence
reports which were turned over to
Gorin dealt with the movements
and activities of Japanese persons
or organizations and Salich con-
tended that he and Gorin thought
that this information would benefit
the Soviet only so far as it had COM
mon interest with the United States
in opposition to Japan.
Gorin's wife was indicted Jointly
with the men but was acquitted.
COunter-Espionage Picture.
The data covered the movement of
fishing boats suspected of espionage
and the taking of photographs of
American war vessels, matter that
the court said gave a detailed pic
ture of the counter espionage work
of the naval intelligence" A foreign
government in possession of such
information, it continued, would be
in a position to use it either for
itself in following the movements
of agents reported upon, or as a
check upon this country's efficiency
in ferreting out foreign espionage.
Nor do We think it necessary to
prove that the information OBJ
(See SUPREME COURT, Page A-16.)