ATOM BOMB

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 287, 5 December 1945, Page 5

ATOM BOMB

RUSSIAN AGENT MAY HAVE SECRET TRAILED BY G-MEN FOR TWO YEARS

Recd. 9.15 p.m. New York, Dec. 3. A Russian Secret Service agent who may have obtained atom bomb secrets is at present living in a New York hotel under constant surveillance by the F. 8.1., which has been trailing him for two years, says the journal “American.” The Russian, though employed in an obscure Communist musicshop at 75 dollars a week, possesses virtually unlimited funds, with New York bank accounts amounting to thousands of dollars. He entered the United States illegally from Canada in 1938 but was linked up with the atom bomb in Chicago in 1943, when he accepted a package in a park from a scientist who was employed in atom bomb development at a Chicago laboratory. A military intelligence officer watching the scientist then trailed the Russian to a boarding-house, where the Russian registered as Alfred Adamson. That night the F. 8.1. entered “Adamson’s” room during his absence found the package and sent it to Washington, where it was found to contain highly confidential details of atom bomb development. The scientist was immediately inducted into the Army and is at. present stationed on an obscure South Pacific island. Adamson’s numerous contacts include members of the Communist Party’s National Committee, doctors, lawyers, an electrical manufacturing executive, an employee of the Soviet Embassy, and Soviet vice-Consuls, also the woman owner of a New York jewellery store who was the intermediary for Adamson’s more secret contacts.

A year ago, Adamson carrying a brief-case, left the jewellery store proprietor’s apartment and dashed into a waiting car which G-men pursued. Adamson left the car without the brief-case. The Soviet vice-Consul soon afterwards entered the car and drove to the Soviet Consulate, which he entered carrying lhe brief-case. Investigation showed the car was owned by the, executive of a company manufacturing secret radar equipment. Another time, Adamson, with the same executive, went to Chicago, where he discovered he was being watched. The executive returned to New York, telephoned the contacts and said: “The F. 8.1. spotted us in Chicago. We almost got away. Adamson is trying to make a West Coast road to board a Soviet ship.” Adamson continued his journey with the train swarming with G-men who were changed at every stop. Some were disguised as conductors or brakemen. Adamson, arriving at the, Portland docks, where several Soviet ships were tied up, saw more than 100 G-men lined up near the gangplanks. After making futile attempts to elude the trailing Government cars, Adamson returned to New York. The F. 8.1 had notified the State Department that he was attempting to leave the country and requested permission to arrest him for espionage, but he and his confederates are still not arrested.

The correspondent describes him as a small, gnome-like man with deepset, piercing eyes and a furtive walk. He wears huge horn-rimmed spectacles. The F. 8.1., the State Department and the Russian Embassy declined to comment.