Police Question Students On Article On British Spying

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28540, 20 March 1958, Page 11

Police Question Students On Article On British Spying

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, March 19. An article on British spying in Eastern Europe published last month m the Oxford University undergraduate magazine is being investigated by police, it Wa » reported today. The “News Chronicle” said that pciice last night had interviewed *l-year-old Lewis Rudd. the editor of “Isis.” The newspaper Quoted him as saying that he believed four other undergraduates had been seen. Rudd told the newspaper ne believed the interviews were “in Connexion with the Official Secrets Act.” He saw the article before it was Published. “I don’t know who w rote the article or where the material came from,” he added The article, called “Frontier Incident—Exposure.” referred to {Pying along the Russian frontier from Iraq to the Baltic. It said Russian broadcasts were Monitored by Russian-speaking Rational Servicemen. The “News Chronicle” said the ■rticle said: ’‘Border incidents such as a plane straying over an Iron Cur-

tain frontier were deliberately provoked by the West to set m motion Russian defensive measures so that monitoring of Russian shortwave radio would provide accurate estimates of the size and type of Russian armaments, troops, and the nature of their tactical methods. “In order to get this information. the West had been willing to go to extraordinary lengths of deception. “British Embassies usually contain monitoring spies. When the fleet paid a ‘goodwill’ visit to Danzig in 1955 they were on board. “And since the Russians do not always provide the required messages, they are sometimes provoked. “A plane ‘loses its way’ while behind the frontier, tape recorders excitedly read irritated exchanges of Russian pilots, and when the latter sometimes force an aeroplane to land, an international incident is created and reported in the usual fashion. “In a moment of crisis, irresponsibility of this kind could well frighten the Russians into war,” it said.