The daily record., 1952-02-11
These Days

By
THE soRGE SPIES

General Charles A. Willoubhby
has performed a signal service to
his country by writing Shanghai
Conspiracy" the story of the Sorge
espionage ring of which many
Americans were a part. This was
Undoubtedly the most clearly con-
ceived and the most successful es-
pfonage operation.
AS I know quite well some per-
sons involved. particularly Agnes
Smedley, who was obviously Rus
sian agent as early as 1929, it has
often been astonishing to me that
so little has been told of this ac-
tivity. Nor am / sure that the story
ends with General Willoughby's
book, for while he establishes be-
yond doubt that 1t was Sorge's
data that convinced the top men
of the Kremlin that they could
risk war in Europe without fear of
Japan, his data does not tell us
what part these spies played in
the development Of an anti-Ameri-
can atmosphere in Japan prior to
Pearl Harbor. Maybe someone will
dig into that some day.
You will discover, if you read
this book, that one of the men in
this intrigue in Shanghai, who
went by the name of Walsh, was
none other than Edgene Dennis,
whom Judge Medina sent to prison.
You will be told that when Eugene
Dennis and Earl Browder were
working in China q. Their
clandestine activities in Shanghai
were under the direction of the
Kremlin, the Comintern, and the
4th Bureau Qntelligence) of the
Red Army"
We rarely think of any American
operating just that way, but this
book gives names, many of them
familiar to us.
One of the central facts that
General Willoughby stresses time
and again is that when such men
becomes spies, they leave the Com
munist parties of the countries of
their origin and become members
of the Russian Communist Party.
Thus, they come not only under the
discipline of that party but they
become Russian citizens, subject
to Russian law.
That does not mean that they
give up their original citizenship.
They keep that as well, to be used
as might be- For instance, Agnes
Smedley had both an American
and German passport. Sa
General Willoughby conveys the
method of operations: S'tdS
Three principles which guided
them are noteworthy:
"(D While the group was high
ly cosmopolitan there seems not
to have been a Russian among
them. (2 While every member of
the group was either a Communist
Party member or strong sympa-
thizer, they avoided association
with the Chinese Communist Par
ty. (3) They did not function as
a group. and few of The members
knew who the others were, or even
were aware of their precise mis-
sion or whom they were working
for They knew they were working
for the Cause, but not the chain
of command"
To me, the most interesting char
acter in General Willoughby's book
is Agnes Smedley, an American
woman, who engaged in Soviet es-
pionage for more than 20 years.
1 met Agnes Smedley almost on the
day she arrived in Shanghai, os-
tensibly from Germany. 1 came to
know her very well and recognize
her as some kind of a Russian
agent.
Agnes was born in Missouri of
old American stock Her father,
whom she seems to have hated,
was an unskilled laborer and her
mother took in boarders. Her Rus
sian affiliation arose out of her
interest in India. In New York,
she had joined Friends of Free
dom for India" In 1918. she was
arrested with Salindranath Chose.
Here the most significant fact was
that this group was in possession
of German funds, while the United
States was at war with Germany.
I have not the space here to give
the whole of Agnes Smedley's ro-
mantle anti-American career in
China Suffice it to say that Geh-
eral Willoughby traces that career
from childhood to her death. Yet,
the Pentagon cleared her.
After reading Shanghai Con-
spiracy,s suggest you obtain from
the House Committee on Un-Amer-
lean Activities their report. 1.-THE
Shameful Years for supplement
tary reading.
Body get started and also because
Billiards. dealers had to collect
their rpptilar commissions