Evening star., 1947-01-31
Ottawa's Spy Case
"Ideological Motivation" OVERRIDE Loyalty and
Ethics of Communist Spy Recruits
By Res Collier

"
By Rea
This IL the Nth OF a series OF
articles based on the Canadian Royal
Commissions report on operations OF
a Russian spy ring in Canada during
and since World War H.
It was Communist theology, not mer-
cenary motives, which led some OF
Canada's key war scientists and civil
servants to communicate directly or
indirectly secret and confidential in
formation, the disclosure of which
might be inimical to the safety and in
terests of Canada. to the agents OF a
foreign power"
The mere mention of money, several
of the Soviet agents reported to their
military intelligence bosses at the Rus
sian embassy, was enough to cause
some of the prospective recruits" to
freeze up. As one agent said, the sug-
gestion Of payment tended to put too
much emphasis on the 'conspiratoria"
aspect of the nefarious operations, with
adverse results on the recruiting ap-
proach."
Because the Royal Commissions dis
cussion of the theological motivation"
considerations is of interest to the
United States as well as Canada. this
article will quote literally from the
commissions report.
Perhaps the most startling single
aspect of the entire fifth column net
work." the commission stated, lis the
a
Soviet agents were able to find Cana
dians who were willing to betray their
country and to supply to agents of
foreign power secret information
which they had access to in the course
of their work, despite oaths OF al
legiance, of Office and Of secrecy which
they had taken.
MANY of the Canadian public serv-
ants implicated in this espionage net
work were persons with an unusually
high degree of education, and many
were well regarded by those who
worked with them in agencies and
departments of the public service, as
persons of marked ability and intelli-
gence." ~.
Recruits" Were in Key Jobs.
The report cited as examples Prof.
Raymond Boyer of McGill University,
"a man of very substantial independ-
ent means; Maj. Israel Halperin,
army research expert; Durnford Smith
and Edward w. Mazerall, McGill grad
yates and scientists of the National
Research Council; Kathleen Mary Will
sher, employe of the ONCE of High
Commissioner of the United Kingdom,
and Capt. David Lunan of the War
time Information Services.
The commission felt that the motiva-
ton which led persons such as these
to take part in an espionage conspiracy
directed against Canada by agents of a
foreign power is significant and seems
to us to be of great Importance"
There IS no evidence, the commission
says, that money played any important
part in the original motivation.
"On the contrary" the report states,
''the evidence is overwhelming both
from the documents and from the testi-
mony of several such agents themselves,
e. g., Lunan, Mazerall, Willsher, Boyer,
Gerson-that their original motivation
was a product of their political theology
and of the psychological conditioning
received in the study groups"
In the course of the development"
Of the agents, however, money in small
amounts was passed out-for expenses" :"
Care was taken by the espionage re-
cruiting agent" it was explained, mot
to mention the possibility of monetary
rewards at the time when the first as
signment or request was put to the
selected recruit"
The reason cited for this by the COM
mission was that "the senior members
Of the network felt, probably rightly,
that mention of money at this stage
would act as a deterrent rather than
as an iflducement to secret Communists
facing consciously for the first time the
critical issue of invitation or initiation
into what was. obviously an illegal con-
spiracy directed against Canada. The
Russians thought they could obtain bet
ter results in the early stages by al
lowing the recruit to regard the mat
ter solely as an theological assignment. "
Tactful Approach Successful.
This discreet approach produced re-
suits, too. For example, Mazerall, when
asked about any money offers he re-
ceived, said: II am positive, knowing
myself. that the slightest suggestion of
1t would have discouraged it, as far as
Wdo SoAACC1llCu, CuG1Cly. / WOuu
not have accepted money. If it had
been offered to me I would have said
no, at the moment, and know I would
have told him Gunan) to get out of the
car, and would have driven away"
1t was the practice of the conspira-
tors later, however, to urge the po-
tential spies to take small sums of
money-up to s200-after they had un-
dertaken their initial assignments.
Capt. Lunan told the commission he
and the three men he was supposed
to enlist, viz, Smith, Mazerall and
Halperin, rejected even the suggestion
Of expense money"
From what you say I take it they
did not want to take any money" q