PROSECUTION ALLEGES WOMAN HAD SECRET Hi A ON ATOMIC TEST

Wanganui Chronicle, 30 April 1949, Page 5

PROSECUTION ALLEGES WOMAN HAD SECRET Hi A ON ATOMIC TEST

(N.Z.P. A.—Copyright.) WASHINGTON, April 28 (Recd 6 pm). —The prosecution charged tothat J Idith Copion was carrying secret information on an atomic testing device at the time she was arrested in New York in the company or Valentin Gubitchev, a Russian engineer This statement was made by the Federal Prosecutor, Mr. Raymond M hearty in his opening address to a jury of eight men and four women t ho will decide whether Copion, 27j u-old former employee of the Justice Department, is guilty of espionage-

Mr. Whearty said that when Copion' was arrested F. 8.1. agents found in her purse accurate information on the "geophone” which is used at the N-w Mexico atomic proving ground to record pressure of atomic explosions. Mr. Whearty said th e information was on the secret list and had never been released by the Atomic Energy Commission, but added that it would b e unimportant if it fell into unauthorised hands. Whearty said another item found in Copion’s purse was a handwritten memorandum based on a "planted I.BJ. report she had seen the morning before her arrest. Copion's purse also contained a sealed packet wiierein were more than 30 summaries of F. 8.1. reports on internal security. The prosecutor said Copion's pocketbook contained a note telling cf the defendant's unsuccessful et_?.rt to procur e from Foley (presumably Mr. William E. Foley, who was Copion’s superior in the Foreign Arents Registration section) a topsecret F. 8.1. report on Communist activities in the United States.