"Thank You, My Lord"

ESPIONAGE Thank You, My Lord Preceded by the bearers of mace and sword, England's Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard, robed in icy dignity and a scarlet gown, entered the oak-paneled courtroom of the Old Bailey. He shuffled his papers, impatiently tapped the silver snuff box on his high desk. Then, mounting the stairs which lead from the cells below directly into the prisoner's dock, appeared Dr. Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs. The court clerk solemnly read the indictment accusing Fuchs of communicating "to a person unknown information relating to atomic research . . . directly or indirectly useful to an enemy." His hand thrust into his trouser pocket, Fuchs whispered: "Guilty." In the visitors' gallery, which was packed with distinguished spectators, the Duchess of Kent toyed with her salmon-pink rose corsage.

A Chill in Court. "My Lord," began the Prosecutor, Attorney General Sir Hartley Shawcross, his grey wig clamped firmly forward over his forehead, "this is a case of the utmost gravity . . . The prisoner is a Communist, and that is at once the explanation and indeed the tragedy of this case . . ." Shawcross went over the story that Fuchs had told in his confession --the course of a brilliant, morally blind man from confusion to total, irretrievable corruption (TIME, Feb. 20).

Shawcross added only one significant incident to the tale--how Fuchs had decided to stop being an open Communist and had gone underground. It was the morning after the Reichstag fire, in 1933, when the Nazis declared open season on Communists (whom they falsely accused of setting the fire). Fuchs read the story in a newspaper, riding on a train. "I took the hammer & sickle from the lapel of my coat where I had carried it," Shawcross quoted Fuchs as saying. "I was ready to accept the philosophy of the party as right in the coming struggle." The Chief Justice, listening with hard lines of patience on his face, opened the small silver box and took a pinch of snuff.

Shawcross concluded with a reminder that Fuchs would have got a different kind of trial had he been accused of treason by the power he served. "It should perhaps be said that this man's confession was made while he was still a free man," said the Prosecutor, "able to come & go as he chose and consult with friends and . . . lawyers."

The defense took over. Fuchs's attorney sketched Fuchs's youth in Germany, "among the smoldering fires of political struggles and strife . . ." Once, when the attorney referred to what Fuchs had called his "controlled schizophrenia" (by which, Fuchs had insisted, one-half of his mind was Communist, the other half supposedly loyal to Britain), Lord Goddard snapped: "I cannot understand all this metaphysical talk, and I don't know that I should."

But what stirred Lord Goddard (and all of Britain) most was the defense counsel's calm statement that Fuchs had been a "known Communist," that his record in the Home Office said clearly that Fuchs had. been a member of the Communist Party in Germany. Prosecutor Shawcross lamely admitted that this was true. But the fact, while it represented scandalous negligence on the part of British security services, did not alter the case or the course of justice.

"Call on him," said the Chief Justice.. Fuchs stood up in the dock, read a statement from notes in a high, tinny voice, barely intelligible underneath his heavy German accent. "I have had a fair trial," he said, "and I wish to thank you, My Lord . . ." Then Lord Goddard leaned forward on his bench; a chill passed through the courtroom.

A Spot of Color. "You have betrayed the hospitality and protection given to you [by Britain] with the grossest treachery . . ." said Lord Goddard, hard-voiced, "your object being to strengthen that creed which then was known to be inimical to all freedom-loving countries . . . You have imperiled the right of asylum which this country has hitherto extended. Dare we now give shelter to political refugees who may be followers of this pernicious creed?-. . . You might have imperiled the good relations between this country and the great American republic with whom His Majesty is allied . . . It is not so much for punishment that I impose [the penalty], for punishment to a man of your mentality means nothing. My duty is to safeguard this country."

Then Lord Goddard imposed the maximum sentence under British law--14 years.

For a moment Fuchs stood still in the dock, then a warder tapped him on the back and he turned, mechanically tapping his yellow note sheets into a neat pile which he slipped into his coat pocket. As he left the court, for the first time since he had faced justice Fuchs's pale cheeks showed spots of color--of excitement or possibly of shame.

The procedure had taken one hour and 28 minutes.

Britain was staggered by the realization that, in checking the political reliability of a top scientist working on the atom bomb, British security agents had simply ignored the fact--written black on white in a government file--that he had been a Communist. An indignant tornado swept up from Fleet Street. Lord Beaverbrook's papers even accused newly appointed War Minister John Strachey of being a Communist (see FOREIGN NEWS). Sir Percy Sillitoe, the tall, burly former South African police officer who heads M.I.5 (British counterespionage), conferred with Prime Minister Attlee; a shake-up of British security services was due. The British, no longer supercilious over U.S. "spy hysteria," ordered rechecking of personnel records in all government departments. Grumbled the Manchester Guardian: "Luckily, the Americans were not sleeping too . . . The slowness of the British government's detectives is something which the free world will not forget or forgive in a hurry .. ."

-British immigration officials have already begun to tighten the fence against "undesirables." Typical was the case of one Nikola Martinovic, who flew into London from Switzerland last week, described himself as a political refugee from Tito's Yugoslavia seeking asylum in Britain. When immigration inspectors told him that his visa had expired, he shouted wildly: "I don't want to go back! I will commit suicide if you send me back to Yugoslavia!" After a night under guard, Martinovic was put on a plane bound for Switzerland. Over St. Quentin, France, he opened a door of the plane, jumped 6,000 feet to his death.

f But British Authoress Rebecca West, who covered the Fuchs case, reminded Americans that they did not have too much cause to be smug. Wrote she: "After all, Alger Hiss was denounced as a Communist agent when he was a prominent figure in the State Department in 1939, and nobody got around to investigating the charges till the last year . . ."

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