Release of the notorious "Sorge Spy Ring" Report

CANADIAN EMBASSY
AMBASSADE DU CANADA

Washington, D.C.,
February 19, 1949.

No. 431

Sir,

I have the honour to enclose for your information copies of the now notorious United States Army report on “The Sorge Spy Ring — A Case Study in International Espionage in the Far East”, which was prepared some time ago by the G.2 division of SCAP Headquarters, Tokyo, but which was only made public on February 10th.

[…]

2. The release of this report made the front pages of the press on February 11th, partly because it has the cloak-and-dagger atmosphere (and something of the approach) of a Grade B movie script, but mostly owing to the fact that it accuses Miss Agnes Smedley, a fairly well-known American writer on Chinese Affairs, of having been a member of the Soviet spy ring in the Far East. It now seems generally agreed that the publication of this highly coloured report, based largely on Japanese intelligence files, was unfortunate to say the least. The most thorough job of putting it in its place has been done by Marquis Childs in two articles in the Washington Post (February 18th and 19th). His main contention is that its publications sets a new and dangerous precedent, not only because of the unsupported charges against Miss Smedley, but also because of the basic assumption which underlies the writers’ approach: that the public must be stirred up to catch spies. As he points out in his second article, spy catching is a highly professional business, “which should not be entered into by those unable to distinguish between disloyal acts and thoughts which may be outside the accepted conventional pattern”. Mr. Childs also attempts to dispel any misapprehension that may arise from the admiration expressed by the authors for the report of the Royal Commission in Canada, since the latter can hardly be compared with a highly editorialized story “based on second-hand and unverified sources, chiefly statements of convicted German and Japanese spies prior to their execution”.

3. Some idea of the flavour of the report may be gained from the following frequently quoted passage: “One begins to wonder whom we can trust, what innocent comrade or loyal friend might suddenly be discovered as the enemy. He may have any face.”

4. To my knowledge, no one has commented that the authors were obviously L’il Abner fans, and must have been reading the Fearless Fosdick “Any Face” sequence at the time.

Encs 3.
The Secretary of State
for External Affairs,
O t t a w a, Canada.

I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your obedient servant,
Thomas A. Stone [signed]
For the Ambassador.