Evening star., 1949-10-23
Strong Soviet Protest
0nAmtorg Indictment,
ReprisaIs Awaited
BY the Assoeioted Press

Nepl1SulS HVUuVu
BY the Associated Pres.
The Soviet embassy yesterday
was believed-to be awaiting fresh
orders from Moscow before max
ing a detailed protest to the
United States against the crack
down on the Amtorg Trading
Corp.
A protest is only one of three
possible lines of Soviet reaction.
The other two are reprisals
against Americans or American
interests subject to Soviet power,
and q new propaganda campaign
based on the case.
Amtorg and six of its officials
were indicted on charges of fail
ing to register as foreign agents.
Since there is no organization
of Americans in Moscow COM
parable to the Russian stated
Amtorg in New York, speculation
here is that the expected reprisals
may take the form of new Com
munist crackdowns on Americans
trying to. operate in the Soviet
satellite countries of Eastern
Europe.
Embassy Clerk Leave Prague.
Such crackdowns are an old
story but there are still many
American diplomats and others
in the Iron Curtain area. They
probably are more vulnerable
than the few Americans remain
ing in Moscow so long as Russia
and the United States maintain
formal diplomatic relations.
Only two days ago Czecho-
slovakia arrested a United States
Embassy clerk and demanded the
recall of an embassy attache at
Prague on charges that they
were running spy ring directed
against the security" of the Com
munist government.
The attache. Isaac Patch, left
Prague for Western Germany
yesterday accompanied by his wife
and three young daughters. Off,
cials here said 1t is normal pro-
cedure to honor another country's
demand for a diplomats recall.
However, they elso said they ex-
pect the spy charges to be re-
jected by the United States.
Protest Only on Arrest.
When the Amtorg indictment
was announced, Vladimir l..
Bazykin, the counselor and tenn
porary chief of the Russian EN-
bassy, dashed to the State De-
Ipartment.
1t was learned yesterday that
his protest was directed only
against the arrest by authorities
In New York City of the five in
dicted Amtorg officials who are in
this country. In making the pro-
test. informants said, he did not
seek to build any detailed case at
all either in behalf of the corp
grafton or in defense Of Its off,
GERS. but simply claimed that they
were Soviet citizens and the en-
bassy objected to their arrest.
To diplomats here this meant
the Soviets still had not worked
out and communicated to the en-
bassy the line to be followed in
case Amtorg was indicted-even
though the Soviets had been
warned repeatedly over a period of
three years and had recently been
formally reminded by the State
Department that Amtorg should
register. .-..
To Get Hearing Wednesday.
The five men who were arrested
in New York and ordered held in
$4,000 bail are scheduled to get
a hearing Wednesday on the Gov
ernment's request for their re-
moval to Washington to face the
charges Of violating the Registra-
ton Act. They are among the
last Of the once large group of
Russian citizens who conducted
Soviet-American commercial re-
lationS with American business
men in the days when the two
countries were on friendly terms.
The breakdown on Amtorg
marks the fourth such case involv-
ing agents of the Soviet since 1888,
Justice Department officials said.
That was the year the Foreign
Agents Registration Act was
passed. Since then a total of 20
indictments for failure to register
have been obtained by the Gov
ernment. In addition to the Rus
sian cases II dealt with German
agents, one japanese, one Italian,
one Romanian, one Spanish and
one Finnish.
The original aim of the regis
tration law was to expose the prop
aganda activities of Communist
and Nazi bund groups and their
sympathizers who were often in
the headlines in the pre-war Pc
riod.
In 1912 the act was amended to
transfer its administration from
the State Department to the JUS
tice Department.
Detailed Reports Required.
Under the law all persons act
ing for foreign government in
the United States have to file q
detailed report periodically with
the Justice Department. This
covers the amount Of income re-
ceived from foreign sources and
q full accounting of expenditures
and their purposes.
It calls for copies of all propa-
ganda publications issued by the
foreign agents. Twice a year the
department makes a public report
w. Al