Evening star., 1951-02-02
Wartime Plane Data
Cited as Source Of
Remington Figures
BY the Associoted Press

NEW YORK, Feb. 2.-Wartime
airplane production charts, from
which William w. Remington al
legedly fllched data for a Soviet
spy ring, were displayed yesterday
at his perjury trial.
A Government witness called
them lone of the most vital COL
lections of strategic information
one could have in the production
field"
And the witness. Edwin A..
Locke, jr., former assistant to the
chairman of the War Production
Board, said any leakage of the
data during the last war would
be of aid to the enemy"
Called Important Program.
Remington. former Commerce
Department economist, looked on
as Mr.. Locke used wooden
pointer to explain enlarged re-
productions of the data file to
Federal Court jury.
Remington is accused of lying
when he denied before a Federal
grand jury that he ever was a
Communist Party member.
The Governments star witness,
former Soviet Spy Courier Eliza
beth Bentley. has testified that
Remington gave her aircraft pro-
ductlon data during the war but
he was too terrified to hand over
the original documents.
Remincton was a War Produc-
tion Board employe from 1912 to
1914 when, Mr. Locke testified,
war plane production was prob
ably our most important single
program
Says Figures Were Screened.
Under cross ss-examination, Mr..
Locke admitted that WPB mem
bers on occasions talked with
neWspapermen.
And he admitted that some data
from WPB production files showed
up in newspaper articles during
the war years. But he said such
figures were screened and not in
the same confidential class as the
overall data charts.
Remington testified for him
self that he gave Miss Bentley
non-secret data and WPB press
releases under the impression she
was a newspaper research worker.
A secret formula that Reming-
ton is accused of slipping to Miss |
Bentley successfully converted
garbage into gasoline, another
witness testified yesterday.
Several witnesses have testified |
variouSly that the much-discussed |
formula produced explosives and
rubber.
The formula has figured fire.
ouently in the month-long trial.
Yesterdays witness, Ralph B.
Austrian, was former vice presi-
dent of the Radio Corp. of Amer
lea and a planner for the War
Production Board from 1912 to
1943. |
Was Considered BY WPB.
Mr.. Austrian said the formula |
was thought up by West Coast |
inventor. J. w. Dean, and received
serious consideration by the WPB.
He said sums of money were
appropriated and he himself was
detached from all other work to
supervise six or seven months of
testing.
Under ross-examination, he
said details of the process for
making gasoline and rubber by
fermentation of garbage had been
broadcast by radio commentator
in the spring of 1912.
He said the process for making
rubber failed and experiments
were stopped about March, 1943
The gasoline produced was never
used commercially or by the WPB,
he said.
Nevertheless, the process was
successful from a chemical and
technical standpoint he said, and
produced 81 octane gasoline. The
octane rating could be raised with |
anti-knock compounds to 80 to 100
octane. suitable for airplane use,
he said.
Mr.. Austrian said that Reming-
ton. as member of the WPB
planning staff. was kept informed
of the secret experiments at staff
meetings.