SOLICITOR TO BE DISMISSED

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27989, 8 June 1956, Page 8

SOLICITOR TO BE DISMISSED

WIFE WAS ONCE COMMUNIST

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, June 6.

Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., has informed its assistant solicitor, Mr J. H. A. Lang, whose salary is £5OOO annually, that, his dismissal “is impending” because the Government has declined to give him a security clearance. His wife was once a Communist.

The Ministry of Supply, has confirmed officially that the Government has objected to Mr Lang’s employment in a position in which he has access to military information. The Ministry has told 1.C.1. that it will not be given any more secret contracts so long as Mr Lang has access to such information.

Mr Lang has visited the House of Commons to lobby members of Parliament of all political parties on what he calls an "outrageous attack on my reliability.” His case is likely to be raised in the House of Commons.

His chief complaint, says Mr Lang, is that he has not been approached by security officials to have a chance of discussing his case. It was recently recommended by a conference of Privy Councillors on security that anyone with access to secret information who is living with a husband or wife with Communist sympathies might, for that reason alone, be removed.

Mrs Lang said: I left the Communist Party in 1950, before we were married. I am not a Communist now and I would not betray my country. My husband has not been a Communist.”