“RUSSIAN SPY RING”

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 February 1947, Page 6

“RUSSIAN SPY RING”

ALLEGATIONS BY PRESS IN AMERICA CHARGES AGAINST GERMAN WASHINGTON, Feb. 6. Gerhard Eisler, German-born alleged agent of the Communist International from Moscow, who was arrested on February 4 on warrant at the order of the United States Attorney-General, refused to take the oath when called as a witness today to give evidence before the House of Representatives Committee on un-American activities about Comunist activities. Eisler was immediately cited for contempt and removed by Federal agents to Ellis Island on a charge of having violated the immigration laws. , A witness then gave • evidence about Eisler and Communist Party activities. Reuter’s correspondent says: “The rabidly anti-Communist press of New York and Washington such as the Hearst, Scripps Howard and Patterson newspapers, are playing up the Eisler story. The Washington TimesHerald, for instance, printed this morning a copyright advance story of the hearing, forecasting ‘a revelation that a highly organised Russian spy ring similar to_ the espionage network uncovered in Canada, has been at work in a monumental effort to steal America’s atom bomb secrets.’ ” Many Charges The chairman of the committee on un-American activities (Mr' J. Parnell Thomas) announced after the executive session that the Justice Department would be asked to prosecute Eisler for alleged revolutionary conspiracy to overthrow the United States Government, failure to register as a foreign agent, income tax evasion, and perjury in passport applications. The Justice Department would also be asked to take immediate steps to see that Eisler was not again allowed to menace the American people. Ruth Fischer, in evidence, said that she was Eisler’s sister. She had not spoken to Eisler for years because she regarded him as “a most dangerous terrorist, both for the American and German people.” She said Eisler had worked in the Comintern and had once been praised in a report to the Comintern for “excellent achievements as the new American agent.” _• _ 4 Fischer said the Communist Party had expelled her in 1925 because of her opposition to Stalin, the Soviet politbureau, and the Comintern. She said: “In Comintern inner circles it is well known that Eisler denounced to the Soviet secret police many anti-Nazi refugees living in Moscow. He was, in particular, responsible for the deaths of the German Communist Hugo Eberlein and his former friend and protector, the great Russian terrorist Nikolai Kukharin.” _ , , , . Fischer said that Eisler told her in Paris in 1933 that he had been sent directly to America by the Comintern as leader of the American Communist Party. He said he would change that, party.

Deportation Proceedings . Robert, Stripling read to the committee excerpts from a statement by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Mr J. Edgar Hoover) to the Immigration Department in October in connection with deportation proceedings. Mr Hoover’s statement said that Eisler was identical with an. individual known as Edward, who represented the Communist Internationale in America from 1933 to 1938. Eisler had contributed frequent articles to Communist publications under the name of Hans Berger, and as Julius Eisman he received 150 dollars a month from the Axis Fascist Refugee Committee in New York, which Mr Hoover alleged to be controlled by Eisler. Eisler directed American Communist activities, said Mr Hoover, and had almost unlimited authority as liaison agent between the Commtern and the Communists in Moscow and those in the United States. Louis Budenz, a former editor of the Daily Worker, who last year denounced Communism, told the committee that Eisler was “No. 1 Communist in the United States and dictated the Communist Party line to its followers. Important Links Louis Budenz told the committee that Eisler was linked to Sam Carr, who is at present sought by the Canadian police on espionage chaiges, and with the former member oi Parliament, Fred Rose, vzho is serving six years’ imprisonment for espionage. Both were important figures m the Canadian spy ring investigation. Budenz said that Carr was one of Eisler’s very frequent visitors. Eisler gave the press a prepared statement in which he said: I am not a spy or a foreign agent. I am not the boss of the Reds in this or any other country. I never did anything to harm the American people, for whom I have great sympathy. 1 am a German Communist, a political refugee, wanting to go home. Eisler told reporters that the pubfished reports about him were invented by provocateurs and rabblerousing agitators. He described Budenz's allegations as the slanders of a hypocritical turncoat. The New York World-Telegram, alleges that Eisler was a member of a secret Soviet ring which hoped to deliver America’s atomic bomb formula to Russia. . 1