Evening star., 1950-02-12
Harbors Called Open
To Alien Ships With
SmuggIed A-Bombs
BY George Fielding Eliot

Russians wanted 10 send atom
bombs, or H-bombs, into New
York Harbor on merchant ship
and explode them there, they
could do it without much trouble
Atom Scientist Harold c. Ure.
told the Senate so on Wednesday
and he was right.
This reporter has just completed
an exhaustive two-week survey oi
port security in New York Harbor
Only one conclusion is possible
we're wide open to a sneak A.
bomb attack. So are other United
States Seaports.
This is by no means the fault
of the highly efficient customs
immigration and coast guarc
men who inspect the ships enter
ing our ports. There are simply
not enough of these men to dt
a thorough job. Moreover, war
time port security measures have
been largely relaxed. Present ef-
forts are directed toward prevent
ing the illegal entry of alien per-
sons and evasions of customs laws
The security setup does these
things quite effectively, but il
wouldn't be likely to detect A
bombs before they went off.
Cargo Not Examined.
For example: Let's say shir
comes into the harbor with al
A-bomb carried as a deckload
It's boxed and it's entered on the
manifest as industrial machin'
cry" At quarantine the customs
boarding officer goes aboard. He
finds the ships papers in order
He doesn't examine the cargo ther
and there-he has neither the
time nor the facilities to do so
The ship proceeds to an anchorage
in the upper bay. Darkness falls
There is no customs patrol in small
launches as there used to be dur
ing the war-the economy ak has
abolished this patrol. The Coast
Guard is supposed to patrol the
harbor, but it doesn't have the
cutters or the men to do thor
ough job. So it's perfectly simple
for the crew of the A-ship to hoist
their bomb over the side and allow
1t to slip silently into the waters
of New York Harbor with time
fuse attached.
Next day the ship unloads her
regular - and innocent - cargo
complying with all usual formali-
ties. The cargo is inspected by
customs officers when it is un-
loaded. 1t is quite in accordance
with the manifest The ship sails
away.
Three days later-boom! A
huge column of water rises from
the harbor-a deadly radio-ac-
tive mist envelops the city-hun-
dreds of thousands of people die
or are incapacitated.
Could Leave Bomb Aboard.
Or take another approach. The
ship has the A-bomb either as a
deck load, or in her hold Just
under a cargo hatch. She pro-
ceeds to a pier in the heart of
Manhattan and ties up, late in
the afternoon-too late to unload
that day. The members of the
crew have their papers-all cor
rect. They go ashore and, pre-
sumably get out of town fast.
That night the bomb goes Off
and D-blasts a vast gaping wound
into the center of New York City.
If it were desired to have bombs
sent to inland cities as well, it
could be done by the simple device
of shipping them in bond, thus
avoiding customs examination in
the port of New York. The time
fuse would have to allow ample
margin for the period of transit
from the New York pier to a
railroad freight station, then
to a customs warehouse to await
application for entry by the con-
signee-who would. Of course
never show up. In this way such
cities as st. Louis or Chicago
Pittsburgh or Detroit could be
reached by sneak Abomb at
tack.
Probably the A-ships wouldn't
be flying the Soviet flag. In fact
only one Soviet ship entered New
York harbor during the whole OF
1949. Arrangements would be
made with the comrades" OF
some other country to do the job
That would be a simple matter.
More Personnel Needed.
Guarding our seaports against
this form of attack is, however
not so simple. We will need cutter
patrols. manned by experienced
customs and Coast Guard per.
sonnel, in every major harbor. We
will need to expand the customs
searching squads in 10 times then
present strength, using expert
enced men as squad leaders, train
ing others as fast as possible. We
will have to exercise the closest
watch over the entry of foreign
ships and over all activities aboard
them-it may be necessary to sta
ton guards on board every such
ship during its entire stay in har-
Dor. We will have to seek the close
and constant cooperation Of
friendly governments to detect ir
advance the approach of a ship
whose crew includes persons sus'
pected of communist affiliations
Ships from ports which are behind
the iron curtain may have to ht
excluded altogether, or permitted
to unload only at isolated anchor.
age far from any worthwhile
atomic target.
One unhappy fact is that The
reservoir of trained personnel fol
port security duties-the Unitec
States Coast Guard Reserve, with
a wartime strength of 144,000 Off
GERS and men-exists today onl,
on paper. The last Congress re-