Evening star., 1948-09-26
House Unit 10 Charqe'
Truman and Roosevelt
Failed 10 Act on Spies
By Miriom Ottenberq

By Miriom Gutenberg
Congressional spy hunters will
make a public charge that both
President Truman and the latt
President Roosevelt knew "spe.
cifically and definitely about 6
Soviet-directed atomic espionage
ring operating in this country
but did nothing about it, it wa!
learned last night.
The alleged failure of the ad.
ministration to prosecute known
spies will be underlined in the
forthcoming report of the Hous,
Committee on Un-American Activ.
tiles, according to a committee in.
formant.
The report. due to be made public
early this week, covers the commit.
tees investigation of espionage ir
the field of atomic research and de.
velopment.
The committee informant sale
the House investigators had not
unearthed anything not already
known to the administration.
To be Critical of Clark.
Because these facts are shock
ing" he added, the report will be
very critical of Attorney General
Clarks failure to start legal action
on the basis of the evidence.
The informant predicted that the
public will be shocked at how
fragrant and deliberate the espi-
onage was
He said the ring was directed by
working with amateurs. Some OF
the participants-both professional
and amateur-will be named in the
report, another Official close to the
committee asserted.
The official who said the admin
tstration would come in for COM
mittee attack said Presidents Tru-
man and Roosevelt and Attorney
General Clark had all the facts,
although theye we're not known to
the public,
Canadian Action Cited.
The atomic bomb was developed
while Mr.. Roosevelt was in Office.
Testimony taken in the Canadian
atomic espionage case showed that
a MoscoW-d directed spy ring was
actively trying to ferret out the
secrets of the atomic bomb during
that period,
Mr. Clark became Attorney Cen
eral in June, 1945. In August, 1945,
the first atom bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima on orders of President
Truman.
President Truman, aboard his
campaign train in Texas, had no
comment on the charges expected
to be made in the report.
Attorney General Clark, who
Joined the Presidents party yester-
day said he had not heard of the
report.
Canadian Example Cited.
"You can rest assured that we
have prosecuted every case where
the facts warranted" Mr.. Clark told
the Associated Press.
He made his remarks as the train
stopped for 20 minutes at Maria
Tex, he added:
"If they follow the pattern they
have in the past, they've uncovered
nothing not already known to the
FBI and the Department of JUS
tice. We've always prosecuted every
case where the facts warranted"
Committee members reportedly
feel strongly that the administra-
ton should have done what Can
ada did about atomic espionage.
Given a head start by the documen-
tary evidence provided by a Rus
sian cipher clerk. Canadian Royal
Commission made an investigation
which resulted in convictions or
guilty pleas from nearly a dozen
Canadian citizens.
Theft of Materials Reported.
As one committee official put it,
"espionage didn't stop at the bor-
der"
That, too. was brought out by the
royal commission. For example, DR..
Allan Num- May, noted British nu-
clear physicist who has confessed
that he gave Russia top secret data
on the atomic bomb and samples
of enriched uranium. was known to
have visited the atomic research
laboratory at the University OF
Chicago at least three times in 1914.
Representative Vail, Republican,
of Illinois said yesterday that some
atomic materials were stolen from
the University of Chicago, but that
the committee is not going into that.
Mr.. Vail, committee member,
said the committees report will go
into espionage at the University OF
Chicago centering around the
atomic pile.
He emphasized that professors
teaching at the university were not
involved. He described participants
in the espionage ring as scientists
assigned to the university to work
on the Manhattan Project.