SOLD TO RUSSIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 14 March 1939, Page 7

SOLD TO RUSSIA

UNITED STATES NAVAL SECRETS TWO MEN CONVICTED IUPA-liv Electric 'lelctcmnti-Oopvrlehtl LOS ANGELES, 11th March. Gorin and Salich were to-day convicted on three counts of espionage and conspiracy. Gorin’s wife was acquitted. Sentence was deferred pending an appeal. Salich was accused of selling naval secrets to Gorin for transmission to Moscow. He said that the information concerned Japanese activities and added that he had not conveyed anything damaging to the defence of the United States of America. The Federal grand jury late yesterday ripped the cover off a purported Russian spy plot when it returned an espionage indictment against two men whose machinations allegedly involved theft of highly confidential records from the United States Naval Intelligence Service, reported the “San Francisco Chronicle” on 22nd December.

The indictment named Mikhail Gorin, 34-year-old Pacific Coast manager of Intourist, Inc., Soviet travel bureau, and Hafls Salich, 33, an employee of the Intelligence Service. Salich was accused of filching records from private naval files and turning them over to Gorin. Authorities said he received at least 1700 dollars over a period of 15 months from Gorin, a Russian subject.

The grand jury considered the case I only briefly before voting the indictment, which charges each of the men I with three counts under the Espionage Act. The charges carry a posI sible maximum sentence of 60 years j in prison—2o years on each count.