WARNING LETTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 57, 9 March 1946, Page 5

WARNING LETTER

ESPIONAGE HUNT IN CANADA KEY FIGURE THREATENED Recu. 9 p.m. O tawa, March 7. Mrs. Hernande Jourbarne, secretary to the Crown Attorney, Raoul Mercier, and one of the key figures in the early stages of the espioragc hunt, to-day received a letter warning her that “if there are any more stories about you in the newspapers you won’t be around to read them.'The letter warned Mrs Jourbarne to take no further part in the e pionage inquiry, and added: “If you are called as a witness in the big case you must forget about the people who came to see you in September.” Tiie Canadian Press Association says this is assumed to be a reference to Igor Gozenko, cipher clerk a the Russian Embassy, who visited Mr. Mercier's office in September carrying a packet which, he said, outlined the ramifications of the Canadian spy ring. The letter was typewritten on ordinary white bond paper, signed “Three Star,” and postmarked Ottawa, March 6. The letter began with the statement: “Too much has already been published about the .py case,” and added: "The whole thing was started by you and the dam Press. If you had Kept quiet everything would hav*. run along smoothly.” Mrs. Jourbarne said the police have offered her protection, but she had not yet decided whether such a step was necessary.

The “Montreal Herald” publishes a story from Ottawa which says: "Another man of science, reported to be an internationally-known professor at Queen’s University, is being held in. communicado by the police. He was taken into custody at Kingston and is at present m the Stanley barracks with others detained in the Soviet espionage inquiry. He, like others, has no legal counsel. It is now revealed that one of those detained staged ■ a three-day hunger strike in an attempt lo get counss’. He ha, seen his wife, who engaged counsel, but he canrot get beyond the outer gateway of the barracks.”