Subscriptions Canceled

Merely by printing the news, a conscientious U.S. newspaper runs the risk of publishing information valuable to a conscientious spy. But even at the risk of doing a conspirator's legwork, U.S. publishers continue to do their job--and to sell their papers to anyone who pays the price. Deep in the heart of Texas, Publisher Howard McMahon of the Abilene Reporter-News (circ. 57,089) chose to take a different course.

In a routine check on his paper's list of 8,000 mail subscribers, McMahon came upon three curious names. One was Captain Imre Mozsik, assistant military and air attache at the Hungarian legation in Washington. The other two also had addresses in the nation's capital: K. Petrov at the Bulgarian legation and August A. Yashin at the Russian embassy. Could these distant subscribers really care about the new school budget or the fortunes of the high school football teams? Or were they more concerned with any and all news of Abilene's Dyess Air Force Base, a vital Strategic Air Command installation whose ring of twelve underground Atlas missile silos had just been armed with its first bird?

"This incident." commented the Reporter-News in an editorial, "brings home to us that precautions must be taken even on the local level to safeguard any information the Communists might want." Last week, along with copies of the Reporter-News, Subscribers Mozsik, Petrov and Yashin got a curt cancellation notice from Publisher McMahon: "This, gentlemen, is the last copy of the Abilene Reporter-News you will receive." Just how his move would affect his former subscribers, McMahon did not explain. "I know they can buy the paper on a newsstand," he said. Nonetheless, the Reporter-News will continue to publish news of Dyess and its deadly birds.

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