GERMAN INTRIGUE.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 29 November 1917, Page 1

GERMAN INTRIGUE.

TO DESTROY PROPERTY. AND SINK SHIPS. HUNDREDS OF PLOTS. WHOLESALE REVELATIONS. (Special to Auckland "Star."} NEW YORK, October 5. Decent - minded Americans have shrunk aghast at the wholesale revelations made by the United States Govverment of the diabolical intriguing of the Kaiser in America, and in a long procession of the august deities of Germania, Wolf von Igel that arch-schem-er of Wilhelm, stands out as the Arnold von Winkelried of Wall Street, gathering into his bosom a sheaf of foreign spears. The Metropolitian Press of New York has emblazoned to the world at large onco more another striking chapter in the cumulative villainies of the Kaiser and all his co-conspirators. The contents of Wolf papers, fought for by the German Embassy, that sleepless guardian of diplomatic nicety, the documents seized by the "brutal'' minions of the United States Department of Justice, have just come to public gaze. Those papers reveal nothing new in principle; nothing German could be strange unless it were an unconscious degeneration into intelligence and honour. They show the representatives of the Imperial Government in their ordinary activities, breaking the laws of the country that shelters them, plotting murder on the seas, and "freedom" is the chaste Imperial hope, suborning, subsidising, buying propaganda stirring up trouble between the United States and Mexico, spying, conspiring, planting bombs to promote the shipping industry, abetting the fine if few Irish intelligences in the United States, that would "free" Ireland by the kind democratic German, hand! Commenting on the latest revelations one New York newspaper rightly said: "What is new in detail in this history of Kultur radiating over idiotic Yankeeland is old in experience. It but cumulates cumulation. A State penetrated and consumed by one monstrous obsession; every servant and official of it, every commerical and industrial creation of it the serf of that idea; a State beyond morality, decency, good faith, devoid of scruples about trifles like arson and murder; nonhuman and inhuman; a State of machine-made savages, scientific, docile, industrious in all the arts of dishonours; that is the Germany of the Holienzollerns. From the German viewpoint, it is its active virtues, ignorantly condemned by 'slave morality' as crimes, of which Washington now makes a small supplementary catalogue." THE OFFICIAL EXPOSE. Our American correspondent, who has had several letters from Mr George Creel, chief of the American Bureau »f Information, is now enabled to give Antipodeans some details of the official expose of the latest phase of German revelations in the United States.

In his prcface to the newspapers, Mr Creel says:—"This is the most important revelation of Germany's lawless depredations and spying in America that lias been made since the first declaration of war, in August, 1914. It is based upon official documents in the possession of the United States Government which have not hitherto been made available to any newspaper. The illustrations make a startling story in themselves.''

Starting its chain of official evidence on the Hun villainies, Mr Creel says:— "Within a few days a German newspaper published in the United States employed as the headline to an article dealing with a rumour of German-Ame-rican disaffection in the United States the derisive legend, 'Lieb Washington, Magst ruhig, sein.' This is, of course, a parody on the refrain of 'Die Wacht am Rhcin.' the German National Hymn; 'Lieb Yaterland, magst ruhig, sein.' 'Loved Fatherland, be restful, (or undisturbed').

"In the parody it carries a sneer comprehensible only to one who understands the German mode of speech, and thought. "Of itself, the instance is slight. But it typifies a certain important phase of the German propaganda which subtly but persistently seeks to present Germany's cause in America in the most favourable light, even to the extent of defending the improper activities of the Teutonic diplomatic representatives before their passports were given them. Because of this continuing propaganda, certain documents in the possession of the Department of Justice now assume peculiar importance, in that they prove undeniably the intimate relations between the accredited representatives of the Kaiser in the United States and plotters against the laws and the security of America, whose enterprise did not fall short of projected wholesale destruction of life and property. Such of these documents as were essential to legal proceedings brought against the Germans have been published. Others are here made public for the first time. They form a curious if disjointed, chapter in the diplomatic history of the war. VON IGEL'S "ADVERTISING AGENCY."

"In the autumn of 1914, when the German plots against Canada were fomenting in the United States, there was established, on Wall Street, New York, an 'advertising' office, presided over by a big, sauve man of Teutonic aspect, named Wolf von Igel. There were two peculiar features about this office. One was that it was frequented during two years of singularly quiet and unbusinesslike existence chiefly by Germans who had nothing whatsoever to do with advertising. The other was a large safe, bearing the insignia of the German Imperial Government.

"To this office there came one morning, in April, 1916, while von Igel was preparing a mass of papers which lie had taken from the safe for transfer to the German Embassy in Washington, four United States Secret Service agents from the Department of Justice, who made their way pnst the guardians always on duty, put von Igel under arrest, and undertook to seize the papers. The German was large, powerful and brave. With the aid of 0110 associate, he stubbornly fought the officers, striving to rescue the papers, to close the safe, to get to the telephone, and communicate with his superiors. Revolvers were drawn by the Secret Service men. They produced no effect, upon the intrepid von Igel. "This is German territory," he shouted. 'Shoot me and you will bring on war.' i

HOW THE PAPERS WERE SEIZED.

"There was no shooting. But after a protracted struggle the defenders were overpowered and the papers seized. The German Embassy at once entered its protest. These were official papers. They were sacrosanct. The diplomatic prerogative of a friendly nation had been overridden and the person of its representative insulted. To this the State Department replied that the invaded premises at 00, Wall Street, were described in the contract as a private business office for the carrying on of advertising, and that von Igel had not been formally accredited as a German representative. When the papers were examined by the Department of Justice .the reason for von Igel's determined fight became apparent. Here, in the form of letters, telegrams, notations, cheques, receipts, ledgers, eashbooks, codes, lists of spies, and other memoranda and records, were found indications—in some instances of the vaguest nature, in others of the most damning conclusiveness —that the German Imperial Government, through its representatives in a then friendly country and nation, was concerned with: Violation of the laws of the U.S.; Destruction of lives and property in merchant vessels on the high seas; Irish revolutionary plots against Great Britain; fomenting plots against Great Britain; fomenting ill-feeling against the U.S. in Mexico; subornation of American writers and lecturers; financing of propaganda; maintenance of a spy system under the guise of a commercial investigation bureau for the purpose of stirring up labour troubles in munition plants; the bomb industry and other related activities. TO SINK SHIPS WITH BOMBS. "Perhaps the most illuminating single document in the collection is a letter of July 20, 1915, here reproduced as it appeared upon the stationery of the 'Bureau of Investigation.' This innocent, pretending agency was at the outset the secret service of the Hamburg - American Steamship Company. Under Paul Koenig, its manager it became an adjunct to the German Diplomatic Secret Service, 'XXX' is the secret designation of Koenig, who is now under indictment on criminal charges in connection with his 'diplomatic work,' and is interned at Fort Oglethorpe. The person represented by the figures ' 7950' is Captain von Papon, former Military Attache of the German Embassy and the practical executive of its underground system. The document as seen in the reproduction, describes the subterfuges of 'XXX' (Koenig) so that he might not be identified by the mysterious —when they met. 'XXX' states that money was to be drawn for the payment of 15 dol to an unnamed person, under peculiar precautions, through cheque No. 14G on Rigg's National Bank, Washington, dated July 10, payable to , signed amount 150dol. No reason was given as to why the payment was made, says the report. Several days after the payment the recipient called at the 'passenger office of the line,' and made a statement which is thus embodied in the 'XXX' report: 'My name is . I have an office at the building, but I do not care to state my local address. I intend to cause serious damage to vessels of the Allies leaving ports of the U.S. by placing bombs, which I am making myself, on board. These bombs resemble ordinary lumps of coal, and I am planning to have them concealed in the coal to be laden on steamers of the Allies.' Finally 'XXX' states that 'the caller' brought with him a sample bomb, 'such as has been described to you by the subscriber,' and asks for the instructions. The document is lettered at the foot, '0.8. to 7000,' indicating that the secret agent known as 'O.R.' had transmitted to von Papen. VON PAPEN'S CHJRQUE. "Now for the proof direct and unescapablo. Cheque 146 on the Riggs National Bank has been traced and added to the Secret Service collection. It is payable to Koenig and signed von Papen. Therefore, von Papen stands convicted, on the evidence of a report claimed as an official document by the Germans, of paying money to s plotter designing to blow up merchant, ships sailing from the port of New York. The person who made this report is known to the Department of Justice officials. "Compare these documents with the following authorised statement from Berlin, transmitted by wireless for publication in the "New York Times" in December, 1915: 'The Gorman Government has naturally never knowingly accepted the support of any person, group of persons, soeiety, or organisation seeking to promote the cause of Germany in the U.S.| by illegal acts, by counsel of violence, by contravention of law, or by any means whatever that could offend the American people in the pride of their own authority.' SKILL OF SPY SYSTEM.

"Of the completeness and skill of Germany's spy system in America, a glimpse is afforded through the voluminous correspondence of Dr. Theodore Otto, of Allcntown, Pennsylvania. Dr Otto's special concern was to ascertain the nature of the contracts for munitions and arms upon which the various factories in the neighbourhood were engaged and report „hem to the German Embassy. His work was such as to earn him spccial commendation, for which he expresses himself in one of his letters as duly appreciative. He was able, he states, 'in my capacity as a physician to establish relations with officials of almost all of the munition factories in this vicinity/ Either Dr. Otto substitutes fancy for fact or he was able to obtain curiously exact information in many instances, such as the number of foreign Government inspectors, the character, calibre, and quantity of guns ordered by foreign Governments, and other valuable details. GERMANS AND CASEMENT. Several lines of communication between the German Diplomatic Service and the Irish revolutionary movement are indicated in the captured documents. John Devoy, of New York, now editor of the "Gaelic American," a violent anti-British paper, was one of the active agents of this connection. Significant entries appear hero and there; references to messages from the German Embassy at Washington, and the German Consulate at New York; mention of a secret code to be used in commu-

nicating with him, and of a "cifer Devoy"; also a notation, the details of which remain undiscovered, concerning ''communication ro manufacture hand grenades." Devoy it was who acted, for a timo afc least, as go-between for the German Secret Service dealings with Sir Eoger Casement, executed by the British for treason. There are several references to money and messages for Sir Eoger Casement, or, more briefly, "8.C." and one reeord of a cheque for 1000 dollars for Casement, evidently handled by Devoy.