◆ SpookStack

—-President- Regrets Se of Powers’ Sentence Francis Gary Powers was sentenced to 10 years’ loss of liberty by a Roviet court on August 19. Following are statements made on that date by — dames C. Hagerty, Press Secretary to the Presi- dent, and Lincoln White, Director of the Office of - News, Department of State, together with a De- partment statement of August 1E and the text of a Soviet note of August 11. STATEMENT BY MR. HAGERTY, AUGUST 19 White House preas release dated August 19 The President has been informed of the sentence imposed on Mr. Powers by the Soviet Court, and he deplores the Soviet propaganda activity in con- nection with the entire episode, beginning last May, and regrets the severity of the sentence. He extends his sincere sympathy to the members of Mr. Powers’ family. STATEMENT BY MR. WHITE, AUGUST 19 The United States roment has no intention of prosecuting Franc wers because it sees nothing in his conduct to warrant such prosecu- tion. Provision has been made for continuing compensation for Francis Powers while he is under detention. Arrangements have also been made to provide for his wife. DEPARTMENT STATEMENT, AUGUST 15 Press release 461 dated August 15 In view of the continued inability of the Ameri- can Embassy at Moscow, despite its repeated rep- resentations to the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to arrange fo. of Embassy representative _ to interview Francis owers, Secretary of State Herter ad Foreign Minister [Andrei A.J] Gromyko, which was handed to Mr. Gromyko by Ambassador [Llewellyn E.] Thomp- son on Friday, August 12.* The Secretary’s letter 4 For background, see BULLETIN of May 80, 1960, p. 851; June 13, 1960, p. 955; and Aug. 22, 1960, 3. 276. _ *Not printed. September 5, 1960 oa a pointed out a tionals Which invéseld-violations of U.S. espio- nage laws, as well as similar incidents in other — countries, in which Soviet authorities demanded © access to the individuals concerned and in which permission for such access was promptly granted. The Secretary's letter pointed out that further Soviet persistence in refusing to permit an Em- bassy official to visit Mr. Powers could only lead to the conclusion that there are certain aspects re- garding the preparation of the trial of Mr. Powers which the Soviet Government, for its own . purposes, desires to conceal. The Soviet Foreign Minister's oral response to the Secretary’s letter constituted a further refusal of the U.S. request for an Embassy representative to see Mr. Powers before the trial. SOVIET NOTE OF AUGUST 11 Preas release 457 dated August 18 Following is the text of a note received from the Soviet Government tn response to the American Embassy’s note of July 80, 19602 about Francis Gary Powers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics presents its compliments to the Em- bassy of the United States of America and with reference to the Embassy’s note of July 80, 1960 has the honor to _ state the following: - js is known to the Embassy, criminal proceedings have been instituted against American citizen Francis Gary Powers under Article 2 of the Law on Criminal Responsi- bility for State Crimes (Espionage). F. Powers will be tried according to the laws of the Soviet Union. The Powers case has been accepted for consideration by the Military Ooliegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S5.8.R., open court session of which has been set for August 17. The competent Soviet organs consider it possible to solve the question of a meeting of an official of the U.S. Em- bassy with F. Powers at the end of F. Powers’ trial. Considering the circumstances of the case, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declines the protest of the U.8. Em- bassy contained in the note of July 80 and expresses sur- prise at the form to which the Embassy resorted for ex- pressing its requests to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R.- As for the other questions presented in the U.S. Em- bassy’s note of July 80, an answer to them was given in the U.8.8.R. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Note of August 4, 19602 *¥or text, see BULLETIN of Aug. 22, 1960, p. 277. 36) involving Soviet na- <<