Evening star., 1948-05-21
Unnecessary Security
5aps Nations Science
Strength, Condor Says


of the Bureau of Standards, who has
been called the weakest link" ir
Americas scientific security by 8
House American Activities Sub.
committee, described his philosophy
of a delicate balance between sci.
ence and security before the Wash.
ington Academy of Sciences at the
Cosmos Club last night.
Expressing the hope that "any
investigators present will have a
profitable evening"" Dr. Condor
stressed the need of keeping mar
row course between giving away in
formation of vital value to poten-
tial enemy and enforcing a secrecy
which can result only in the stag
nation of scientific progress.
He emphasized the extreme diff
Guilty of giving away vital informa.
ton, even if one desired to do so
because of the enormous complex.
ity involved.
Il would feel sorry indeed" hi
said, ''for any modern Mata Har
who tried to get the secret of the
atomic bomb by using her wiles or
any young Army sergeant"
Denied knowledge of Bomb.
DR.. Condor said that only once
in his entire association with the
atomic bomb project had he evel
been asked what might be consid-
cred an improper question, although
the questioner probably was en-
tirely innocent.
This question, by foreign visitor
was whether America was working
on a uranium bomb. Dr.. Condor
said he denied any knowledge OF
such activity, although he was then
engaged on it.
He revealed that he had first
heard of the Canadian spy cases
from President Truman himself
shortly after he came to Washing
ton. He stressed that 1t was shock
ing that the clerk who made the
confession had a very difficult time
getting anybody to listen to him and
that the intelligence services of both
countries were completely unaware
of what was going on.
Secrecy in Science Short Lived.
In the long run, DR.. Condor
stressed, there can be no real scien.
tif1c secrecy because what one grour
of investigators discovers can be
found out by similarly competent
group in another country which Ii
willing to put in the same amount
of effort.
Restriction of information is de.
signed to conserve a static position
based on present knowledge DR.
Condor said. Science can grow anc
develop only by wide distribution
of information about its results ir
order to bring new young minds tt
bear on its problems"
In regard to loyalty and discre-
tion probes, he said, "a lot of the
investigation going on today is in
extremely incompetent hands ano
waste Of the taxpayers money
Security concerning military pro-
jects, he stressed. hardly could be
in safer hands than those OF Amer
ican scientists. He cited particu-
larly the case of the early work
leading to the atomic bomb. AT
first secrecy was entirely self i'm
posed by the scientists themselves
who were trying to interest the Gov
ernment and finally succeeded only
by direct appeal to President
Roosevelt.
Once the Manhattan Project was
underway the men who knew most
about the work were all finger
printed. checked and rechecked be-
fore they were allowed to know those
things which they themselves had
so long kept secret. 1 cannot help
but wonder what we could have done
about it if We found that some OF
these individuals could not be
cleared"
While admitting that the posi-
bility of espionage in scientific
laboratories should be considered
seriously, DR.. Condor indicated a
low opinion of the possibilities in
this line. He cited the fact that
throughout the war American in
telligence services were unable to
find out whether Germany was max
ing any progress on an atomic bomb
and that the Germans, with all their
highly developed spy system, never
even knew of the Manhattan project.