SPY TRIAL IN U.S.

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26121, 25 May 1950, Page 5

SPY TRIAL IN U.S.

Information On Atom Bomb ALLEGED DEALING WITH FUCHS '•.Rec. 8 p.m.) WASHINGTON, May 23. The man to whom, it is alleged, Klaus Fuchs turned over atomic bomb secrets in the United States has been arrested ou espionage charges. He is Harry Gold, aged 39, of Philadelphia, described as ‘‘an intermediary use a by Soviet Intelligence to make important contacts in the United States.” The arrest was based on information supplied by Fuchs. Gold was born in Switzerland of Russian parents According to the United States Attorney-General 'Mr J. Howard McGrath) Gold admitted his contact with Fuchs and had given a detailed account of his activities. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has learned that Gold first met Fuchs in New York's East Side in 1944. They had subsequent contacts in other sections oi the city. Gold later met Fuchs in Cambridge. Massachusetts, when he received both written and oral information which Fuchs provided as a result of his work at the Los Alamos atomic plant in New Mexico. F. 8.1. agents said that Gold in 1915 again met Fuchs at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Fuchs turned over information to him. Gold’s last meeting with Fuchs took place in September. 1945. The F. 8.1. said that it had been watching Gold for a long time. When agents took him tc custody in Philadelphia he stated: “I thought I would be helping a nation, whose final aims I approved, along the road back to industrial strength. Particularly was I taken with the idea that whatever I

did would do to help make living conditions far more advanced, along the road we know them here in the United States.” Gold was also quoted as having said that he “felt that as an ally I was helping the Soviet Union obtain certain information that I thought it was entitled to.” The charge against Gold alleged that his espionage offence occurred in wartime (a crime punishable by death, or by imprisonment un to 30 years). The formal complaint said that Gold gave atomic secrets to one “John Doe.” described as “a representative officer, agent, nr employee of a foreign government. to wit. the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.” At the tirhe of his arrest Gold was engaged in chemical research into heart ailments at a Philadelphia hospital. His arrest followed the questioning of Fuchs in Wormwood Scrubs prison in Britain by the F. 8.1. Gold was granted bail of 100.000 dollars. The F. 8.1. said that Gold came to the United States in 1914 when he was aged four. He claimed American citizenshin because his parents became naturalised. The family name of Golodnitsky was changed to Gold.