Evening star., 1952-12-30
Atomic Crime and Punishment

DR.. Alan Num- Mays release from prison
serves to point up the striking difference in
severity between our own and British laws in
the field of atomic and other types of espionage
Here is an admitted Communist, citizen
of the United Kingdom, who has never repented
having played key role in the notorious spy
ring that betrayed to Soviet Russia, during the
war and after, vital glo-American-Canadian
secrets bearing upon the design and production
of A-weaponS. Convicted in 1916, he has served
six years and eight months of ten-year SEN
tence, and he has been freed now because British
law makes it mandatory to release all such
prisoners Gf they have a record of good be-
haVior' in jaiD after they complete two-thirds
of their terms
Presumably, in due course, DR.. Klaus Fuchs
will receive the same considerate treatment as
May, who incidentally will henceforth be COM
pletely free-free even of parole restrictions.
Sentenced in 1850, Fuchs is in prison for having
carried out espionage so treacherous and trea-
sonabe that his judge was moved to brand him
as the perpetrator of uniquely heinous crime
doing "irreparabe harm" to Britain, America
and the entire non-Soviet world Yet he is
serving term of only IA yearS-the maximum
penalty permitted by the Official Secrets Act
of the United Kingdom-and there seems little
doubt that he will get third of the time off
for good behavior"
Quite obviously the contrast is very great
between the punishment thus meted out in the
United Kingdom to May and Fuchs and the
punishment meted out in the United States to
their American co-conSpiratorS, particularly
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. For the RoSen-
bergs, unless the President intervenes, will die
in the electric chair some time during the week
of January IL. That is the sentence that has
been imposed upon them-after fair trial and
emphatic verdict of guilt handed down by
jury of their peers-for their traitorous and
deadly violation of our Espionage Act. Certainly,
by way of comparison, the British law on official
secrets, though it covers the same grave category
of crime, seems aStoundngly mild in fixing
maximum penalty of no more than IA years
in jail.
Moreover, whereas Britain has thus placed
q marked restraint upon itself in dealing with
spies, we have in operation not only our ES-
pionage Act but also our special atomic law
Under this law-enacted after the Rosenbergs
had carried out their crime and hence law
not invoked in their prosecution-it is specifi-
cally provided that anybody guilty of spying in
the field of A-weaponS shall be punished by
death or Imprisonment for life (but the penalty
of death or imprisonment for life may be i'm
posed only upon recommendation of the jury
and only in cases where the offense was COM
mitted with intent to injure the United States)."
1t may be-, of course, that no law of any
kind, regardless of its severity, will ever dis
courage individuals like May or Fuchs from
spying. Even so, it seems plain enough that
Britain's Official Secrets Act, in its present
form, looks much too toothess for the grim age
of A-weapons and the prospective hydrogen
bomb. What enemy agent will be deferred by
it when its worst penalty is 14-yeara prison