“ARGUS” REPORT OF INTERVIEW

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27368, 5 June 1954, Page 7

“ARGUS” REPORT OF INTERVIEW

Statement Denied By Dr. Oppenheimer

PRINCETON (New Jersey), June 3. Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer denied statements attributed to him y ester day by the Melbourne “Argus,” which said it had called him by radio-telephone for his comments on the decision of a security board that he should no longer receive atomic secrets. The statements were circulated in a Reuter report to North American subscribers. The denial was issued by Miss Vera Hobson, Dr. Oppenheimer’s secretary, and said: “Dr. Oppenheimer has not had a radio-telephone conversation

with the Melbourne “Argus” or with any other newspaper, nor has he made any such statement. “As Dr. Oppenheimer’s secretary I took a call from the Melbourne “Argus” on June 2. I was asked far Dr. Oppenheimer’s comments on the case and my own, and I refused both requests.” The Reuter summary of the report was published prominently—on the front page in some cases—in the “New York Times,” the “Baltimore Post,” and in other newspapers taking the Reuter service. Comment by Managing-Director Mr Colin Bednall, managing-direc-tor of the Argus and Australasian, Ltd., said in Melbourne today in response to an overseas request for the reaction to Dr. Oppenheipier’s denial: “There is not the slightest doubt our radio-telephone interview with Dr. Oppenheimer did take place. “The facts are:—That Dr. Oppenheimer was introduced on the telephone to the ‘Argus' reporter by his secretary—a woman—by name, and he then spoke for a period of three minutes. “The ‘Argus’ said in its report of the interview published on June 3: ‘Dr. Oppenheimer then said he shouldn’t be talking to the press. “But I guess you’re a long way away down there and it can’t matter much up here,” ’ ”