Evening star., 1950-05-05
Agreement by Britain
To Give Fuchs Data
To U. 5. Reported
This Government Denied
Detailed information
For Nearly 3 Months
By David Laurence

tVt tNSossy - N'OhtuS
By David Laurence
'"The biggest traitor the work.
has ever known"-which is the
way United States Senators char.
acterize DR.. Klaus Fuchs-ha,
been lodged in q London jail fol
nearly three months, but thu
Government Of the United States
which has been anxious to gel
comprehensive information abou
him and his activities in thi'
country, has until now been de-
MED an opportunity to get that
information.
For the British government hai
only just agreed to comply with
the American request, forwarded
through diplomatic channels
seeking details that are Of tran
scendent Importance so as to pre-
vent q recurrence Of the Treason
episode through which secrets o
atomic bomb making were trans
mitted to the Soviet Union
agents both in Boston and at Lo
Alamos, New Mexico.
1t is ironical that, with all tn
headlines about spies and near
spies and all the debate as Il
whether there are many Commu'
nists in Government, the one mar
who gave away the biggest secre'
Of all time gets off with q 14-yeal
sentence and everybody else in
side the British and American
governments who failed to detect
him sooner gets OF without ever
an inquiry or censure from any
where.
Official Version Of Case.
The official version Of the in
cident is that the British govern.
ment cleared" DR.. Fuchs anc
about 20 other scientists in 1914:
when they came to the United
States to work on the so-callee
Manhattan project, out Of which
came the atomic bomb. The argu'
ment is made that, when q foreign
government voucheS for one o.
its officials here on a mission, tht
United States Government accept!
that clearance, doesn't even keel
him under surveillance subse'
quently and doesn't do any mor'
checking.
Tragically enough. the fact tina
DR.. Fuchs was a Communist wa
known to the Home Off1ce in tn,
British government for a lonl
time. Nevertheless in 1947 DR.
Fuchs was sent to the Unitet
States as the head of a secont
British group to discuss will
American atomic officials such /,
vital matter as what data shoult
be "declasSified" in connection
with the atomic-bomb work don,
during the war.
When DR.. Fuchs came here IL
1947. no checkup was made be
cause Of the clearance" given IL
1943. Who in the Manhattan pro
tect made this ruling? If the per.
sons who failed to check up wer,
officers Of the military establish
ment, was there ever cour
Of inquiry assembled to determin,
whether any officer was negligent
and to ascertain the facts? Wher
q battleship gets stuck in the muc
or some Army officer is guilty O,
bigamy, there are military trials
but when the most vital secret this
Nation has ever possessed Is trans
mitted to another country, no.
body in the American Government
in either the legislative or the
executive branch-appears to be
interested in getting the facts
80 that the persons guilty OF
negligence may be exposed.
Explanation Unsatisfactory.
Nor has there been a Satisfac-
tory explanation given as to why
the British government has not
taken any steps to punish it's own
officialS who gave clearance" tc
DR.. Fuchs. Fingerprinting is o
modern custom. A newspaper
man can't get into a White House
press conference without beins
fingerprinted. So it might wei
be asked whether fingerprintS o.
DR.. Fuchs were ever taken herr
or abroad when he was certified
for the project so that some on
might have become aware earlie
of his Communist connections
Surely the known record of Dr.
Fuchs on file in the British HON
once must have included finger
printing and other data. He wa
a top scientist in British atomi,
work.
But when DR.. Fuchs confesse,
and was sentenced, the British
government at first turned down ;
State Department request for full
information. Why was this done
and why did not the American
Government insist on immediat'
action? The story is that pres
sure from Capitol Hill finally in
fuenced the British government
to depart from a precedent
which holds that foreign govern
mentS may not have access tx
British prisons for their data
Such "precedents" seem like thir
excuses in an atomic age.
Senators of both parties have
been very much chagrined at thu
attitude of the British govern.
ment, and they were pleased tt
learn today that the request hac
finally been granted, though il
must be conceded that an atmos.
phere of suspicion exists that the
technical reason given in the frs
instance was not the real barrier
and that there are still mysterie.
between two governments which
are supposed to be intimate anc
friendly where security is con,
cerned.
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