GERMANS IN U.S.A.

Evening Star, Issue 23374, 18 September 1939, Page 11

GERMANS IN U.S.A.

BUND INVESTIGATED A COMMITTEE'S INQUIRY The committee which is to investigate “ un-Amencan ” activities, with Mr Martin Dies, a member ot' the House ot .Representatives from Texas, as its chairman, opened its public hearings to-day, reported a Washington message to • The Times ' on August Iti. Armed with a fund of lOO.OUodol from Congress, its agents have been at work since’i'euruary, and, according to Mr Dies, have a mass of material large enough to keep the inquiry going until Christmas. The possibility that the labours of this committee, with their inevitable accompaniment of sensationalism, may cgjbarrass the more orderly an! discreet working of the executive bureaux, operating in the same “ unAmerican ” field, is a source of some uneasiness to the Government. The first witness called this morning was Mr Fritz Kuhn, the national head of the German-American Bund, who left Germany in 1923, before the Munich beer collar putsch, and who told the committee that he had bean a member of the German Reserve Officers’ Association and of the Stalilholm, but not of the Nazi Party. He is a naturalised American. ORGANISATION OF BUND, It was upon the organisation of the Bund, the character of its membership, and its income that questions turned during the morning session. Mr Kuhn was vague as to the number of members of the Bund. Membership lists had been destroyed upon his order about a year ago, when, as he said, there were newspaper rumours of an “ investigation.” Ho set the entire strength at 20,000, a more modest figure than he had earlier given to the committee's chief investigator, and one which does not include “ sympathisers.'' who outnumber the members by three, four, or five to one. Membership is, though has not always been, strictly of American citizens, and a “ cleansing ” took place about the time that the order forbidding Germans to join such organisations was issued in Germany. There was no relation of cause and effect, Mr Kuhn insisted—the Bund had acted earlier—-but he admitted having gone to the German Consulate for the checking of the Bund's lists. “ What is wrong with that?’’ he asked. There are movements auxiliary to the Bundi in which Mr Kuhn plays a directing part. He is the president of the German-American Business League, whose purpose is to support “ Christian storekeepers.” A payment of three dollars secures the listing of the store in a published book, and members of the league, as an inducement to join, are given stamps which are used to validate a 3 per cent, reduction on their purchases from “ Christian ” storekeepers. OTHER ORGANISATIONS. Ther is a prospective Citizens’ League to watch over those about to become Americans, and there arc a “ Settlement League ” and an “ Auxiliary League ” which runs “ camps ” at Yapbank, Long Island, and at Andover (New Jersey). As for the “ Order Division ’ of the Ruml, Air Kuhn dollied that they were Storm Troopers. They “ keep order at meetings,” ho said. The impression made by this testimony upon committee mebers was sumed up by Mr Noah Mason, a Republican for Illinois, who called such organisations “ money-making rackets, based on the credulity of nationalist!* or racial ties and hatred of the Jews.” Mr Kuhn’s English is not yet what >t might bo. and ho cried indignantly; “ Are you accuse me to be racketer?” His geography is even worse, for during the day lie placed l Kansas City in Arkansas and St. Louis in Mississippi. Air Kuhn warmly denied that the Bund taught hatred of the Jews, but ho brandished a pamnhlet. obviously an attack on the organisation, as a justification for “ defending yourself.” He had visited Germany in 1936. ho said, and had marched l in a parade there, but not wearing the swastika. He saw Herr Hitler and presented him with -l.OOOdol for “ Winter Relief.” Tn his 10 minutes’ talk, he said. Herr Hitler had only asked him how lie liked the Olympic Games.

By this time the atmosphere of Hie committee room had grown so electric that the wituo-s and a ember of Hie committee alost came to blows.