ARMY OF GERMAN SPIES.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 July 1917, Page 4

ARMY OF GERMAN SPIES.

IN UNITED STATES. San Francisco, May 2g * Scores of arrests of German secret service spies throughout the United States rind the collapse of the Kaiser’s system of espionage in America, operated at huge expense since the outbreak of the European war, are imminent as the result of a coup organised by Uncle Sam’s secret service. This is the news that trickled from the Federal heacjquarteis of the West in San Francisco. After s.evera} months of nation-wide investigation, conducted with a secrecy that insured success, in which the pick of the Government’s investigators were engaged in every State and in Mexico, the operations of every branch of the Kaiser’s intelligence bureau and the identity of its legion of spies, and messengers have been bared. A coup is about fo be staged by Uncle Sam that will! shake loose the Kaiser’s war agents and completely crumble the machine that lias directed bomb disasters before America’s entrance into the war, and since lias been gathering , information for the Kaiser’s benefit 011 Uncle Sam’s

war preparations. The arrest of Rudojph Flemaudinglie in Los Angeles is considered the forerunner of sensations to come. According to unimpeachable sources, Flamendinghe is known to be the head of the Kaiser’s secret service bureau on the Pacific Coast, and lie has been receiving dniiy reports, maps, and diagrams of fortifications and information on war preparations from a squad of spies scattered throughout the western division. Lieutenant Frank E! Wolf, former aviator'in tlie German arnn - , who was arrested in llie German hqspjtal W sau Francisco in the middle of May, disguised as a’ dish-washer, was a member of Fkdnendinghe’s stalT f had j enlisted in the LfjjerfiffStates army) aviation corps at. San Diego, Southern California, and deserted last j January. | Through German messengers he conveyed the result of his observations to Flamendinghe. For several months past tlie United States lias been divided into ten divisions by the German Government’s war agents, with headquarters in the large centres, where messengers reported the result of the operations of the spies. No letters or telegrams or telephones were entrusted with the information conveyed to the Geripan division “generals.”. All communications -between the- Kaiser’s representatives were conducted by messengers, whose identity to thc s Spies themselves was known only through a secret code of expression. Before the entrance of United States into the war, and after a series of bomb depredations were committed by German agents, Chief William J. Flynn, of the United States secret service in Washington, secretly organised a detail of the nation’s most astute detectives, which has been known as the “ Flying Squadron,” to cope with the plots of the German spies. The result of the long investigation of “Flynn’s “sleuths” is now ready for action, and the collapse and exposure of tfie Kaiser’s espionage system are shortly due. Flamendinghe had in his possession 1,200 pounds of qkrasite, a high explosive which had been purchased to destroy American ships being built on the Pacific Coast, according to his own admissions. He was formerly first lieutenant in the “ Death’s Head ” Hussars of Prussia. Captain 11. Weber,-another German spy, who has been arrested in California, was very outspoken, and gloried in the fact that he had been in tlie spy service of tlie Kaiser for 25 years, liacj fought with the Beers to gain information regarding the; British Army ; had by misrepry- | sentation got into {lie United States annjq and when with them on-the Mexican border deserted and joined the Mexican insurrectionists. Weber lias stated that he is a friend of Consul-General Bopp, of San Fxancisco, and says Bopp financed and directed for Berlin purposes.