IMMIGRATION: Asylum for a Cold Warrior

To the office of Jerzy Leon Nowinski, 52, professor of physics at the University of Warsaw, came an invitation to lecture from fellow scientists at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Nowinski, internationally known as an expert in the theory of elasticity (mathematical theory relating to reactions of different materials under varying strains and stresses), succeeded in getting permission from Warsaw's Communist government, arrived in the U.S. hree months ago. But before he left Warsaw, he plotted with his wife, arranged an involved scheme whereby Mrs. Nowinski secured passports to Britain for herself and their seven-year-old daughter. Last week Attorney General William P. Rogers announced that Nowinski had asked for asylum in the U.S. and that it had been granted. The physicist, said Rogers, had acted shortly after he received word that his wife and daughter were safe in England; they, too, will become permanent U.S. residents.

In Baltimore, Nowinski explained simply that he had decided to stay in the U.S. because of "political, moral and religious conditions" in Poland. Added the professor, a Roman Catholic: "Our child had to attend school, and my wife and I decided she must attend a school with better religious and moral conditions." If the U.S. needs his help in furthering its progress in missiles and other space problems, Jerzy Nowinski humbly observed that "I would be willing, if asked."