OTTAWA (CP, Feb. 17) – High floodlights tonight gave a daylight atmosphere to the area about the big Royal Canadian Mounted Police headquarters on the outskirts of suburban Rockcliffe, where persons being questioned in the spy ring inquiry were being held.
Armed Mounties patrolled the area around the barracks, apparently floodlighted to forestall any escape attempts.
OTTAWA (CP, Feb, 17) – Investigation of a Dominion-wide foreign espionage system dates back to an episode in an Ottawa apartment house last September which rivalled the best of Oppenheim spy thrillers, it was learned today.
Scene of the episode was a modern apartment house on Somerset Street, facing a quiet park and just a few blocks from downtown Ottawa. Central character was Ivor Gosenko, a young Russian on the staff of the Russian Embassy.
Gosenko had moved into the apartment about two years before and a short time later his wife, Svetland Gosenko, gave birth to a son, their only child. Neighbors considered them ideal apartment tenants, they devoted all their attention to their own affairs and when an occasional party was held Gosenko made the rounds the next day to apologize for any noise.
They spoke English with a bit of difficulty, but shortly before the climax – last September – they confided to others in the apartment they wanted to stay in Canada. Gosenko told some of his more intimate friends he was likely to be sent back to Russia and he was fearful of his future. Looking back, those who lived near him recall he appeared to become increasingly nervous.
He told some of his Canadian friends he might suddenly disappear and asked them, if he did, to be sure his little son was looked after.
Then one September evening his apartment was entered. Drawers were emptied and the most remote corners searched by a group of three or four men. Gosenko knew they were there but he showed no desire to interfere. He hid in another apartment but a neighbor called the city police.
When the police arrived, the men were outside the building, apparently waiting for Gosenko to return.
“The boss told us to come and get Gosenko,” one of them told a policeman.
The men were sent away and the house placed under guard. As far as could be learned no charge was laid. For several days the apartment was guarded, with Royal Canadian Mounted Police taking over from city police.
The next day the Gosenko family left. A padlock was put on their apartment and a few days later the furniture was removed. Those who knew of the affair at the time and who heard the explanation that it had “something to do with spies,” attached comparatively little significance to it.
Now, with Canada’s biggest spy story come to light and with the knowledge that police investigation dates back to last autumn when a person involved confided in police the episode took on new significance.
The Pittsburgh Press (February 18, 1946)
Lack of legal guards for confidential information cited by Army officers
WASHINGTON (UP) – Army experts today expressed grave concern at what they termed “multiple leaks” of closely-guarded atomic bomb secrets.
Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves, chief of the bomb project, declared that the nation has lost more security on the bomb during the past four weeks than during the entire wartime development period. But he declined to specify source of the leaks.
Other Army sources warned that hitherto top-secret information is “constantly slipping out,” and contended that the leaks endanger this nation’s supremacy in the atomic field. They said no adequate legal protection for the vital information now was available.
Canada pushes probe
These views were expressed while the Canadian government continued investigation of the disclosure of secret and confidential information to a foreign mission at Ottawa. It was denied at Ottawa that atomic information was involved in the Canadian leaks.
Columnist Drew Pearson said last night that atom bomb secrets did constitute the “confidential information” supplied Russia by a Canadian spy ring. He added that a Russian agent was permitted to sail from Seattle with a suitcase containing the data.
Parliament warned
He said in his weekly radio broadcast that the incident had brought a “showdown” in U.S.-Soviet relations and convinced many officials that “we cannot go on appeasing Russia.”
In London, L. J. Solley, Labor member of Parliament, warned that the Canadian round-up of spies endangered scientific thought and constituted “anti-Soviet propaganda.” Others speaking at a conference on science and welfare declared that a factor in the Canadian situation was failure io share scientific knowledge on a worldwide basis.
Army sources cited what they considered two chief ways in which bomb information has slipped out. These are.
Loosely-guarded public talk by those connected with the bomb’s development.
Testimony of witnesses in the current hearings on atomic energy before the special Senate Atomic Energy Committee.
In these hearings, Army sources say, witnesses cannot discuss atomic subjects or argue their own views without inadvertently releasing valuable information the witnesses, they say, have gone into technical aspects of the problem which have contributed little to congressional attempts to establishing a control policy – but which have jeopardized security.
Allegation denied
This allegation drew heated denials from committee sources. They pointed out that witnesses repeatedly have been warned not to divulge confidential information in public hearings. One source, pointing to voluminous printed testimony, declared that no atomic knowledge hitherto regarded as confidential has been made public. Committee members, he said, carefully have withheld questions that might divulge valuable technical information for private committee sessions.
Since V-J Day, Army sources say the principle of “compartmentalization” – no one person knowing all the atomic bomb secrets – has been breaking down. Provisions of the Espionage Act are inadequate to check the flow of information, they said.
Kept secret during war
Some committee members and scientists appearing before the group have urged a breakdown of “compartmentalization” as a step forward in peacetime application of atomic energy.
Authorities declined the specify other sources of leaks, explaining that such action merely would point attention to the leaks and further weaken security.
During the war, it was maintained, there was “absolutely no talking” about atomic matters. One officer said the situation now was “similar to two boys discussing an auto – they never stop.”
Now that the Canadian government has flushed the alleged Russian spy ring operating in North America, the first question in this country is what has our own government been doing about it? We hope our officials have been doing plenty, and that this will be public knowledge soon.
There has been some impatience over the secrecy of the State Department, especially since Secretary Byrnes evaded the question in a press conference 10 days ago. The White House now admits that Prime Minister Mackenzie King discussed this espionage with President Truman at the Washington atom bomb conference in November.
But the secrecy up to now is justified. Counter-espionage agents could operate effectively only so long as the culprits thought themselves safe.
Whether the Canadian government finally closed in to catch the key men, or whether the latter got away and Ottawa had to act quickly to arrest the smaller fry, is not known.
Nor is it known yet how efficient our own FBI and military intelligence officers have been. They have been working with Canadian officials. Since they were given notice before the Canadian arrests, it is reasonable to suppose they had time to detain any Russian espionage agents or accomplices in this country. The chances presumably are slim of catching many more now that they have been warned. So it is about time for our government to begin talking.
Doubtless some Washington officials think there is so much diplomatic dynamite in Soviet espionage, the less said about it the better. But we cannot believe that President Truman and Secretary Byrnes with the best of motives are so unwise as to try to hush this up.
If the Russian government is involved, the American people have a right to know. If it is not, they have a right to know that too.
That Moscow is anxious to get information on the atom bomb, or Arctic radar, or any other of our defense secrets, is not surprising. But if she is so anxious to get it that she will operate a spy ring under our very noses, that is most surprising. Because it would mean she is so desperate she is willing to gamble American friendship, and all that means to her, in order to steal our defense data.
Why?
Americans should reserve judgment until they get the full facts on this spy business. But they should not have to wait too long for those facts.