HORDE OF SPIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23222, 16 December 1938, Page 11

HORDE OF SPIES

ACTIVITY IN AMERICA' TWO RUSSIANS ARRESTED GERMANS AND PANAMA LOS ANGELES. Dec. 14 An agent for tho committee of the House of Representatives, which is investigating un-American activities, after inquiring into espionage in the United States with military and naval officials, says that tho situation is so grave that it cannot bo overstated. "The United States will be in a precarious position if sho does not take heed," ho states. He specifically mentioned German activities. Mr, Martin Dies, chairman of the committee, subsequently observed that tho information given to the committee indicated that the United States was honeycombed with spies.

The Federal Department of Justice is holding Mikhail Gorin, local manager of the Soviet Government tourist agency, and Hafis Salich, a Russianborn American, on charges of espionage. The men are accused of stealing information gathered by the United States about Japan's military and naval strength and supplying it to the Soviet. Salich, as a United States naval intelligence officer at San Pedro, had access to data on Japan, which "G-men" said was of the utmost value to Russia. He is alleged to have supplied this to Gorin, a former Soviet Consular official. The jury in a Federal Court at Cristobal, Panama, found Hans Shackow, an employee of a shipping line, guilty of espionage. Sentence was deferred, pending a motion for a new trial. Shackow is one of four Germans, including a woman, arrested on October 16 for photographing the Panama Canal defences. The trial of the others is pending.