Evening star., 1949-12-03

>Cll1dV VEO dV YVOV,OVOs
Uranium
Continued From First Page.)
like Russia might have been able
Ito develop on atom bomb more
quickly because of this" ..
Mr.. Jordan told the story Last
night in a radio interview by Com
mentator Fulton Lewis, jr. He
said the late Harry Hopkins. con-
fldant of President Roosevelt, gave
him instructions by long-distance
telephone to expedite certain
freight shipments the Russians
would designate. .
Mr.. Hopkins told him to "keep
quiet and say nothing about them
(the shipments). even to superior
officers. and not to leave any rec
ord of them," Mr.. Jordan added.
To-day Stephen T. Early. now
deputy Secretary of Defense. and
who, like Mr.. Hopkins, was 9
confidant of Mr.. Roosevelt, called
the story utterly unbelievable" "
Given an outline of the charges
by reporter. he said:
ION the basis OF the informa-
ton just given me. the whole
story seems utterly unbelievable
to me. It is the first I ever heard
of it,"
Charges Called "Incredible."
Robert E. Sherwood. playwright
Eand author of the Pulitzer prize
wining book Roosevelt and Hop
lkins," labeled Mr.. Jordan's charges
Incredible.
In. his association with Mr..
Hopkins and while studying his
papers after his death. he never
saw any White House stationery
with Mr. Hopkins name printed
on It. such as the former Air
Force officer said he ran across
in the Russia bound luggage, Mr..
Sherwood said.
| Mr.. Sherwood said that Mr..
Hopkins interest in the atom
bomb was only political in acting
as a go-between for Mr.. Roosevelt
and Prime Minister Churchill re-
garding sharing of secret data.
Mr.. Jordan said the scene of the
activity was Great Falls. Mont.
where he was stationed and where
lend-lease planes took of for Fair
banks, Alaska, for delivery to Rus
sian pilots. Russia was an ally Of
the United States at the time.
The "ever-increasing amounts
of baggage" carried by the Rus
slams made him suspicious, Mr..
Jordan said.
Many Suitcases Shipped.
Checking large shipments of
rope-bound suitcases he found "a
tremendous quantity Of State De-
|partment documents carbon or
photostatic copies Of them-and
on each Of them a piece had been
cut out Of the top and bottom Of
the page, where the stamp secret
or confidential was always placed" !"
Most Of the information on the
documents was Greek" to him,
Mr.. Jordan continued. One Of
the blueprints he found had the
notation:
walls s feet thick, Of lead. and
water, to control flying neutrons." :"
He said he noted other words
of various other papers: "Neu-
irons, proton- energy produced
by fission or splitting ''' ura-
MUM, o."
THAT was In the spring Of
1914, and nobody had ever heard
of Oak Ridge. or the Manhattan
project" he said.
Reported to Superior. /
In answer to q question, Mr..
Jordan said he made reports Of
what he had found to the air In
spector general.
"I also kept rather extensive
side notes on anything that hap
pened and seemed to be Of pos
sible Importance" he added.
Mr.. Jordan said he found a
letter on White House stationery
which impressed me because it
had the name Harry Hopkins In
the upper lefthand corner.
Part Of the message, he said,
went: Had q he'll Of q time get
ting these away from Groves"
Headed Atomic Project.
Mr.. Lewis suggested that the
reference might have been to Gen.
Leslie Groves. head Of the secret
atomic bomb project during the
war.
At his home In Darien, Conn.,.
Gen. Groves said he. did not see
how the charges could be Zig
nored" by Congress although he
declined to speculate on whether
there would be an investigation. !
In his reference to Mr.. Hop
kins, the former officer said HE
was Ia the picture all the time.
He was the button that the Rus
slams touched every time they
needed emergency help"
Mr.. Jordon said Col. Anatole
Kotikov. commanding officer Of
the Russian group. referred TO
some Of the shipments as uranium
and referred to them IS bomb
powder. .