DR. JOLIOT CURIE DETAINED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 136, 20 March 1948, Page 5

DR. JOLIOT CURIE DETAINED

AMERICAN IMMIGRATION OFFICE’S ACTION

NEW YORK, March 18,

Dr. Irene Joliot Curie, the French scientist and daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie, the discoverers of radium, was detained by the immigration authorities when she arrived in New York from Paris to-night. The Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee of New York had invited Dr. Curie to the United States as its guest. The committee said the purpose of her visit was “to acquaint the American people with the immediate needs of Spanish Republicans in exile.” The committee Avas included in a list issued recently by the United States Attorney-General (Mr Tom Clark) of organisations classed as disloyal and subversive. Dr. Curie succeeded her mother as director of the renowned Curie Institute, Paris. She is a Nobel Prize winner.

She Avas taken from the airport to the immigration detention qffarters on Ellis Island. None of the people assembled to greet her Avas allowed to see her.

MADAME CURIE RELEASED

CASE TO BE CONSIDERED

(Rec. 11.45.) WASHINGTON, Mar. 19.

The Attorney-General has authorised the release of Madame Irene Joliot Curie, Avho has been detained on Ellis Island.

Mr Clark ordered her release pending further consideration of the case. She Avill be free on her OAvn recognisance without bail for 15 days, Avhich is the length of the visitor’s visa granted her in Paris. Departmental sources said privately to-day that Mr Clark had placed no restrictions on her activities. She Avas allowed to speak for the Anti-Fascist Committee if she desires.

The Justice Department did , not know that Madame Curie Avas coming to the United States until she landed at La Guardia airport. Earlier the Justice Department had stated that Madame Curie Avas detained because her entry into the country might be “prejudicial to the best interests of the United States.” The Paris correspondent of the Associated Press reports that the chairman of the National Assembly’s Defence Committee, Paul Anxionnaz, said he “was extremely uneasy over the fact that France’s research Avas under the control of Dr. Frederic Joliot Curie, husband of Irene.” He added that he would raise the matter in Parliament.

United States officials in Paris said America had long been concerned over Dr. Curie’s politics.