DRAMATIC ALLEGATIONS

Chronicle (Levin), 5 August 1948, Page 5

DRAMATIC ALLEGATIONS

— . Reuter ,

Reds field High Office In United States 6

\(N.Z.P.A>-

CovyrigM)

Received Wediiepday, 7 p.m. ' WASHIN GTON, August 3. Tlie dramatic Congressional spy iavestigatiou mushroomed still further today wheu a string of former high Goveniment ofticials were brauded by an ex-Communist asvlcey figures in the prewar Communist . undergrouud. Whittaker Ohambers, an associate editor of Time magazine, tes>tifyiiig under oath to the House Un-American Activities Committee, said tne Commivnist group included Lee Pressman, Nathan Witt. Alger Hiss and his bro'the'r Donald Hiss, John Abt and Henry Collins. Chambers said he was a Communist from Iu24 to 1937 and served in the undergrouud chiefly in : Wasliington. "The- head of the. undergrouud group vas Nathan Witt theii attorney for the National Labour Relations Board, he said. ' 1 Lee Pressman was also a member of this group as was ' Alger Hiss who, as a member of the State Departiuent, later organised the eonfer-' enees at Dumbarton Oaks, San Franeisco and the Ameriean side of Yalta. Alger Hiss served as s'eeretary-general of the San Franeiseo eonference where United Natibns was founded. Chambers said the primary purpose of the underground movement was to lUultrate into the Uniteu States Government. The group 5s evcntual bbjects were espionage and the overthrow of the Government " by any or all means. " Collins was onee with the Agriculture Department, Abt was Assistant Attorney-General in 1937 and 193S and asi active supporter of Henry Wallace. Lee Pressman, was fcrmerlv general counsel of the Cbngress of Industrial organisations buc resigned to support Ileiuy vValiace. Donald Hiss formerly held an important position in the State Department and was now , practising law in Wasliington. Alger Hiss is now head of the Carnegie Eoundation for World Peaee. .Chambers said that two days after Russia signed the non-aggression pact with Germany he had iobl A, A." Berle, tlien Assistant Secreiaiy of State, about the Communist spy ring but notliing was ever done about his informatiou. "I knew the underground at the top level wlmrefrom certain members of Miss Peutley's group were apparently recruited," Chambers said. After he broke with Communism he lived in hiding for a y5ar, "sleeping by day and watcliing ttiiough the night with a gun within easy reach. I had a sound reason for supposing the Comniunists might kill me."