Evening star., 1950-02-08
RedEspionage at Peak
Now, Lawmakers Say
After Hearing Hoover
BY Cecil Holland

Reports that Soviet espionage!
In the United States has reached
an all-time peak came today from
members of Congress studying the
broad ramifcations of the Fuchs
spy case.
They indicated after talks with
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover that
systematic spying operations are
being carried on here by agents of
Russia and the satellite nations
behind the iron curtain as well
as those recruited from the Com
munist Party ranks within this
country.
Mr.. Hoover was reported to have
told a Senate Appropriations Sub
committee yesterday that there
are about SAC, 900 Communists and
fellow travellers in the United
States. Of this number $4,000
were said to be card carrying
party members.
Lawmakers Back Fund Plea.
Mr.. Hoover appeared before the
committee yesterday to ask for
$3, ,844 $50 increase in the F'BI
budget for employing more than
TOO additional persons, including
about 800 FBI agents. The far
flung investigative agency is seek
ing budget of $57 100000 for the
1851 fiscal year.
Senators alarmed by the dis
closures that the British scientist,
Klaus Fuchs, had transmitted
atomic and hydrogen bomb secrets
to Russia said that Mr.. Hoover
will have no difficulty in getting
the increased funds.
He can get anything he wants."
one laWmaker commented.
Hoover Amplifies Fuchs Case.
Mr.. Hoover also was reported to
have given the lawmakers more
details on the Fuchs case. He was
said to have told them that the
38-year-old German Scien-
tist had many opportunities in
this country and in England for
passing vital atomic secrets to
Russian agents.
The FBI head was said to have
disclosed that Fuchs had contacts
about twice a month with Russian
agents in England.
His contacts with the Soviet
agents in this country. it was said,
were less frequent. Fuchs was in
the United States from 1943 to
1946 as a member of a British
scientific mission working with
American scientists on the atomic
bomb project at Los Alamos, N.
Mex. During that time he be-
came familiar with early planning
for the hydrogen bomb.
Fuchs Trial to Start Friday.
Fuchs, a naturalized British
citizen since 1912, is scheduled for
trial Friday in London. He is
charged with two specific leaks of
atomic information to Russia
one in the United States in 1945
and another in England in 1947.
Lawmakers said they hoped to
obtain more details of the case
after Fuchs is brought to trial
Under British legal procedure the
scientist has been held incem-
munieado and details of a confess
sion he is reported to have made
have been withheld from Amer
ican authorities.
But those who have heard MFR
Hoover discuss the case in three
appearances in five days before
congressional committees said the
FBI chief left no doubt that Fuchs
had been paid Russian spy
since 1889. They were unable to
say how much the scientist had
received for his alleged trans
mission of this country's most
vital atomic weapon secrets.
Study Confirms Hoover Estimate.
Chairman McCarran of the
Appropriations Subcommittee re-
fused to confirm the report that
Mr.. Hoover had given the number
of Communist Party members and
fellow travellers in this country as
more than half million.
But he said an investigation
conducted by a Judiciary SUBJ
committee he also heads confirms
the figures" Senator McCarranI
is chairman of an immigration
group studying bill designed to
bar subversive aliens from the
United States.
Two Indiana Republicans
Senators Jenner and Capehart-
said the Truman administration
must bear large share of the
responsibility for as many Com
munists in the country as MIR.
Hoover reported.
Administration Is Attacked.
'The Communists and their
sympathi2ers are being aided and
abetted by our own Government, u
Senator Jenner said. THE figures