A SPY'S CONFESSION

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2801, 20 June 1916, Page 6

A SPY'S CONFESSION

YON PAPEN'S FRAUD AND ' CRIME "INVASION OF CANADA" The British Government recently published tho confession of the German spy Horst von der Goltz, who came to England as Bridgeman Taylor, was caught by the police, and to save his skin confessed his share in' tho plots of Captain von Papen, tho German attache, to instigate outrages in America and Canada. Papen was expelled from America, but papers found on him at Falmouth proved his complicity. They included a counterfoil of a cheque paid to tho spy. After the failure of the plot, the spy came to England from Holland on November i, 1914. •He had a passport "faked" by the German Consul named Luderitz' at Baltimore in tho name ol B. H. Taylor. He offered information upon projected air' raids, the source where the, Emden derived her information as to British shipping, and how the Leipzig was obtaining her coal supplies. He offered to go back to Ger- • many to obtain the information, and all ho asked for in tho first instance was his travelling expenses. He was easily .found out, and, confronted with proot • his identity, ho write his confession [in Brixton Prison.

A Moxican ''Brigadier."

The eve of war, he wrote, found him in.Mexico "with a brigade." The German Consul told him that Von Papen Wanted him at New York. Kraske, the German Vice-Consul, then arranged a meeting. "I had," he wrote, "some conversation with Captain von Papen about recent events in Mexico, and afterwards was asked to give my opinion about a proposal made to the German Embassy, the writer of which,, a certain Schuhmacher, asked for financial support in order to carry out a scheme by which lie wrote ho would be able to make raids nil towns situated on the ooast of the Great Lakes. He proposed to use motor, mm flr, ned with machine-guns, lhe proposal being rejected on account of the Embassy receiving unfavourable information about the writer I was at first requested to give my assistance to a scheme of invasion intended to > put in execution by entering Canada with armed forces recruited from the reservist in the United States of America and aided by German warships at that time in the Pacific.' The sMiemc, which was proposed by Captain vnn Papen and tsoy-Jid, was abandoned, objections having been made by Count Bernstorff." I m? 3 to i d P°. Captain von Papen. J. hen Captain Papen asked mo to see at my hotel two Irishmen, prominent members of Irish associations, who had both fought during the Irish rebellion, who had proposed to Captain von Papen to blow up , the locks ,of the canals conuecting the Great Lakes, the main railway. junctions, and grain elevators. It was alleged that by those means, as well us by wholesale distribution o'f proclamations intended to terrify the populace, combined with rumours'of invasion judiciously circulated ill the Press,-a panic would .be created; in Canada, . which would .prevent' the Dominion. from giving any aid to England." A -Consul's Fraud, He inet. the, Irishmen who supplied details and maps,- engaged a man Tucker, or Tucsheimer, and went to Luderitz, '.the Baltimore Consul, who after "faking" the passport, apparently on Papen'a instructions, deceiving the United States authorities at Washington, "proposed to me to make use of part of the crew and one officer of a G. 6hip at that time in the harbour, and furnishod mo with his visit card, at the back of .which he wroto recommending Major von der Goltz, or something to that effect, which I should give to the captain of the ship. While I was still conversing with Mr. Luderitz the captain of the sli'p was announced 'by a,clerk, and Mr. Lnderitz, telling, tlie clerk to bring the gentleman in, introduced me to the captain personally. One of the clerks, a notary, made out nil application ,to the State* Department, Washington, D.C., for a passport purporting to be desired by a certain B. H. Taylor.

"All' tho information in this passport was fictitious. It was arranged that this passport was to be sent to Mr. Buck, New York, who was to deliver it to .me. The following day, a Sunday, I paid, accompanied by Tucker, a visit to the ship, 1 dined there, and selected the men intended to be used in . the enterprise personally. The men were acquainted with the duties'demanded from them. I lilso listened for some time to wireless news received on , board, read to mo by the operator, the captain informing me that he had been: forbidden by the harbour authorities, to U6e his apparatus for sending purposes. As I needed money to furnish the sailors with necessaries, Captain von Papen gave me a cheque payable to Bridgeman Taylor, which 'cheque I had cashed through the agency of an*acquaintance, Mr. Stallford, member' of the German Club. The men arrived, were quartered in several hotels; but on my noticing that my movements were being watched, I sent them back to make the detectives think the enterprise abandoned. ' Dynamite and Pistols. ' "I told Captain von Papen it would be more easy for him to supply me with materials, uynamite, and arms cheaply, on account of his connections, informing him that I could not get those materials except at a prohibitive price. Von Papen then informed me that Captain ' Tauscher, of Ivrupp's Agency, had agreed to furnish me with those things, and told me to sec him at his office. I 6aw Tauscher, and he gave me a letter of introduction to the Dupont Powder Company, recommending B. H. Taylor, and the company supplied me with an order to tile bargee in charge, of the dynamite barges lying on tho New Jersey side near the Statue of Liberty. Captain Tauscher told me he would send thfe -automatic pistols by messenger to Hoboken, New York, to be delivered there to one of.my agents at a certain restaurant, as he would be liable to punishment if he delivered them in New York without having seen my permit. The reasons why I did not apply to the police for a permit are obvious. "In order to get the dynamite it was necessary for me -to hire a motor-boat at a place near 11G Street, Harlem, and to put' the "dynamite on board of the barge in suit-cases. After returning to the station, where I had hired the "boat, I went in a taxi-cab, having two suitcases with' me, to the German Club to see von Papen, who told me to call for tho. generators and the wire again at the club. I took the dynamite to my rooms where I kept also a portion of the arms packcd in small portmanteaux ready to be removed, the rest of the dynamite and arms being in the keeping' of two or my agents, one of which was Mr I'ritzen, discharged from a Russian steamer, where he had acted in the capacity of purser; the other one bcin rr Air tJusse, a commercial agent, who had lived for some 'time in England; the only other agent I employed besides was C. Covani who attended to me personally, Tucker not being entrusted with any of tho,so tilings. Two or three days after I received from Captain von Papen at his rooms at the club, in the presence of Fritzen and Covani, generators and wire which I took to my rooms in a tnxicab! a ' Buffalo, I hired rooms at 198 Delaware Avenue, had tho dynamite brought there, and spent some days trying to got information about the precautions taken by the Canadian Government. I received a telegram sent by von, Papen and signed 'Steffens.' informing that John Ryan, lawyer, and nionoy and instructions. Having meantime received privately information that tho Ist Canadian Contingent had left Valcartier Camp I knew that I should be recalled, tho object of the enterprise being removed." Tlie spy was then short of money, went back to Now York, "discharged Bnsse and Fritzen, who went to Buffalo, left dynamite and other materials in the keeping of an aviator who was manager of the Pels Restaurant at Niagara Palls, to be used again when necessary,,'and left with Covani for New York by way of Buffalo."

Paiicn afterwards arranged with Born-' sfcorff for the spy to Ro'to Germany, ami the statement concludes: "I'havo made those - statements on the distinct understanding that the .statements I have made, or should make in future, will

not be used against me; that I am not to bo prosecuted for participation in any enterprise directed against tho United Kingdom or her Allies I engaged in at tho direction of - Captain von Papen or other representatives of tho Gorman Government; and that tho promise made to me by , in the presenco of , that I am not to to extradited or sent to any country where I am liable to punishment for political offences is made on behalf of His Majesty's Government."