Evening star., 1950-04-05
Capture Of a Real Spy
Like Fuchs Caused
Little Excitement
Atomic Expert Cleared.
BY Britain and Nobody
In U. S. Accepts Blame

by brIfoIn and Nobody
In U. S. Accepts Blame
By David Laurence
With all the talk about spiei
and Communist infiltration in tn,
Government departments, strang,
things happen when they do catcf
a real spy.
The most important spy of tn,
whole postwar period-the mar
who gave away atomic -bomt
secrets to Russia and actually con
feSsed doing so-isn't sentenced
to death but gets relatively shor
sentence in England and the per.
sons in Official life who failed IL
their duty to detect him sooner
aren't even ferreted out for pub.
lie criticism.
Klaus Fuchs was for seven day.
connected with our atomic energy
program. Much of the time he
was In the United States working
on a Government project of the
greatest secrecy. He had access te
everything, and he gave away
everything. Certainly no more ef-
flcient or perfect spy has beer
uncovered in modern times-fol
the making Of the atomic bomb is
one of the biggest and most pre-
cious secrets Of all time.
Zone Day Sensation"
So one would suppose that the
people of the United States and
Great Britain, where Fuchs was
caught after tip from the FBI,
would be SO enraged that the in
cident would be widely publicized
to get the benefit of extra vigilance
in order that nothing like it could
happen again. But at best the
story Of the Fuchs case is what in
newspaper parlance is called a
"one-day sensation" The dis
patches told about it for a day or
two. There was brief trial, most
OF which was secret, and the in
cident has been almost entirely
forgotten by most people.
The facts are that Fuchs was
cleared" by the British govern
ment for work in the United
States and nobody in the Ameri-
can Government now accepts bit
OF the blame. Just why anything
so careless as an acceptance of q
foreign governments clearance
should be permitted in wartime OF
any other time when so much
is at stake is something of a mys-
terry.
Now, when it's over. nothing is
said-publicly, at least-of the
feeling Of the United States Gov
ernment that the British govern
ment let the American people and
the people of the other democra-
cies down by this piece of care
lessness. The American Govern
ment politely let's bygones be by
cones. It makes one wonder what
good 1t does to catch a real spy if
nothing happens afterward.
Certainly such a master spy
ought to have in his head a lot
of information valuable to the
American Government for future
guidance. But has the informa-
ton been made available? 1t may
be doubted whether the United
States Government knows any
more than was printed in the
press and what was filed in the
court proceedings. The impress
sion might prevail that, after such
a disastrous breakdown of the
British intelligence services. there
might be closer cooperation be-
tween the London and Washington
governments on these matters,
but so far as the Fuchs case is
concerned the cooperation is said
to be far from close.
whose Responsibility!
Whose responsibility is it in
America and Britain to bring about
such cooperation? The public
doesn't know and must be left in
the dark.
But even where documents are
stolen from our own State De-
partment, there seems to be a
great deal of indifference some
where inside our own Govern
ment about following up prosecu-
tionS.
Senator Mccarthy has revived
interest in the case of "Amerasia, u
q magazine which he says was a
mouthpiece of communism and
which in 1945 was found to have
obtained possession of nearly $50
classified documents from the
State Department and other Gov
ernment agencies. Some of these
included reports from our mill
tary and naval intelligence Offices
and contained military informa-
ton such as a schedule of bomb
ing targets in Japan. Yet, of the
six persons arrested-and the FBI
rarely makes an arrest without
being sure of it's evidence-all
went free, though two paid light
fines. Nobody went to jail.
Whitaker Chambers admits to
espionage and handing on to Com
munist agents documents stolen
from our Governments files. He is
free.
There certainly can't be much
sense in getting too excited about
near spies" or alleged policy max
ers who influence our Government
to follow communistic ideas when
real spy like Fuchs gets off so
easily at the hands of a govern
ment with which America is sup
posed to be on intimate terms Of
mutual trust.
(penroductian piohts p..nrr~l>