Evening star., 1949-07-01
Hiss Trial Jud ge
Bars Witnesses
For Prosecution
Eis!er's Former Wife
Kept From Stand AfteI
Lengthy Argument
BY NewboId Noyes, Jr.,
and Robert K. Walsh
BY NewboId Noyes, Jr.,
and Robert K. Walsh
Stor StoH Correspondents Is

NEW YORK, July 1.-Federal
Judge Samuel H. kaufman today
refused to allow Mrs. Hede Mas
sing, former wife of Gerhard
Eisler. to testify for the Govern
ment as a rebuttal witness against
Alger Hiss in his perjury trial
here.
Mrs. Massing. also known as
Mrs. Hedvig Gumpertz and Mrs.
Hedda Gompers. was named as a
former Communist by Whitaker
Chambers last summer before the
House Un-American Activities
Committee.
Mr.. Chambers, confessed ex-
Communist courier who is Mr..
Hiss chief accuser, told the
committee Mrs. Massing, a native
OF Vienna, once took Alger Hiss
to task for trying to get a mem
ber Of her underground Com
munist apparatus to join his ap-
paratus.
Denied Knowing Mrs. Massing.
Mr.. Hiss denied from the wit
ness stand here that such an in
cident ever occurred or that he
knew Mrs. Massing. He also had
denied knowing her in the famous
conformation scene in a hotel
here last December, shortly be-
fore he was indicted.
Judge Kaufman. following an
hour and half of debate in his
chambers, sustained a defense OBJ
lection to Mrs. Massing's appear
ance, on the grounds that her
testimony bore only on collateral
issues" in the trial of the former
State Department official.
Mrs. Massing is the wife of DR..
Paul Massing. a sociology profess
sor at Rutgers University. Eisler
her former husband, named by
the House committee as the No.
Communist agent in this country
fled the United States after jump
ing $23, 900 bail and made his way
to Germany aboard the Polish
liner Batory.
Judge Kaufman also turned
thumbs down on another proposed
rebuttal witness. described only as
an officer of the Cherner Motor
Co. in Washington.
Sought Facts on Auto.
Assistant United States Attor-
ney Thomas F. Murphy said he
proposed. through the witness, to
prove facts relating to the pur-
chase and sale of the 1929 Ford
automobile which Mr.. Hiss loaned
or gave to Mr.. Chambers in 1896.
Mr.. Hiss is indicted on two
counts alleging perjury before q
Federal grand jury last December
IS, when he denied having given
secret State Department papers to
Mr.. Chambers in 1887 and 1898
for transmission to Russian agents
and said he did not see his ac-
cuser between 1886 and 1948.
Paul A. Solandt, an employe OF
the Libbary of Congress, testified
for the Government during to-
days abbreviated session, that he
spent the summer of 1887 in
Chestertown. Md, at the board
ing house run by Mrs. Levin w
Wickes. This is the establishment
in which Mr.. Hiss says he spent
the first half of August, 1897
when Mr.. Chambers contends that
he and the Kisses made a motor
trip to PETERBOROUGH, N, H.
Didn't See Kisses.
Mr.. Solandt said he did not see
or meet Mr.. and Mrs. Hiss at
the Wickes' home. When the de-
fendant and his wife We're asked
to rise from their seats in the
well of the court. the witness
said he had never seen them
before.
Another Government rebuttal
witness today was Stanley Russell,
a representative of a typewriter
concern. who testified he had
rented a Woodstock machine to
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