Evening star., 1947-01-30
Ottawa's Spy Case
Key Scientists Were Recruited for the Spy Ring
by Member of Canada's Parliament
No. 4.
By Res Collier

Communist Party among Canadian
Communists and Communist sympa-
thizers.
One of Roses chief assignments was
to develop sources Of information at the
headquarters Of Canada's highly secret
war agency; the National Research
Council. The commission found that
Rose was successful to an almost un-
believable degree in actually organizing
q group of Soviet agents among Com
munistic members and employees Of the
council.
One of these scientists known to the
spy ring as THE Professor" was enlisted
through direct contacts. s'The Profess
sor" was DR.. Raymond Boyer, Of McGill
University. according to the report. Sew
eral other scientists were recruited by
Roses colleague, Capt. David Gordon
Lunan who worked in the Canadian
Office of Wartime Information. Lunan
was assigned the specific task of obtain
ing the cooperation of three officials
Of the National Research Council. They
were Durnford Smith, electronic enairi
neer and expert on radioactivity; Ed
ward Wilfred Mazerall, radar engineer,
and Major Israel Halperin of the Cana
dian Army, ordnance authority
Selves Full information"
In notebook of Col. zapotin was
found the following entry regarding DR..
Boyer: "Professor-Frenchman. Noted
chemist, about 40 years of age. Works in
McGill University. Montreal. Is the best
OF the specialists on Wv on the Ameri-
can continent. Gives full information on
explosives and chemical plants. Very
rich. He is afraid to work. Gave the
formula of RDx; up to present there
was no evaluation from the boss"
"Vv" is Russian abbreviation for
''high explosive" "RDx' was secret
explosive being developed by the Cana
dians. The report points out: This
work was classified as secret during the
war and information with regard to 1t
was restricted to q definite number OF
authorized persons. AS late as March,
1916, information with regard to RDx
had not been released"
The Royal Commission asked Boyer
what moved him to hand over ito some
body who was obviously an emissary OF
the Russians information which your
oath of secrecy forbade you to give
He replied:
"Ihave already made a statement how
Mr.. - was willing to give it to the
Russians and was not allowed to do
so by the Americans. felt throughout
the work that it was unfortunate that
there was not closer scientific liaison
in connection with such information
between the Russian war effort and
ours In fact, I mentioned that good
see a technical mission, British
American-Canadian technical mission
IN Russia and similar Russian mis-
sion in Canada. I felt twas of great
Importance that the scientific war effort
on the two fronts should be co-ordi-
mated. That Is all have to say
Were Communist Sympathizers
The commission said that the other
trio of scientists, Smith, Mazeran and
Halperin, were obviously considered at
the Embassy to be Communist sympa-
thizers Although they testified they did
not know Zapotin and his associates.
their names appear in the assignment
of tasks given to Lunan from time to
time by Rogov (Zapotin's assistant),
and it is also clear that the latter knew
the nature OF the work they were en-
gagged in at the National Research Coun-
Gil, and enough about them to presume
their willingness to cooperate. All the
information concerning these three
recruits had necessarily been previ-
ously furnished to Zapotin and Rogov,
who were undoubtedly confident in view
of what they had learned, probably from
Rose, that the scientists would be re-
ceptive to Lunan's propositions"
1t was Smith whom Lunan approached
first, because he knew him personally.
The report quotes Lunan as testifying
that he started by trying Ito feel him
out" asking him about his work. Il
think it became clear to him what kind
of proposition I was making to him"
Lunan told the commission. "We were
fencing with words, as 1t were, and
couldn't say at what particular stage
of our conversation he understood ex-
actly the nature of the proposition I
was making to him.
Similar indirect approaches were made
to the others, he said. In one report to
the Embassy Lunan wrote: Il believe It
wise to approach them carefully and not
to advance too great an assignment to
them at one time = g. Another slight
resistance to be overcome is the strong
sense of security about their work that
these men have developed as war scien-
lists" In the same report, however, he
said that some information already had
been obtained and more was promised.
The commission declared that Lunan,
Smith, Mazerall and Halperin "did
communicate directly or indirectly
secret and confidential information -"
to the agents of foreign power" Lu-
nan, Smith and Mazerall have been
convicted and Halperin il awaiting
trial.
(Tomorrow: Ideology VS.. Loyaltyo