EXTRAORDINARY PRECAUTIONS

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 28 March 1917, Page 5

EXTRAORDINARY PRECAUTIONS

ROUNDING ;UP CANS. RUSH FOR NATURALISATION. Received 11.25. NEW YORK, March 27. The newspaper Nation states that wide precautions are being taken following upon the realisation of the necessity of preventing bomb plots and pro-German outrages in the event of the declaration of war. The local governments as well as the Federal Government throughout the United States are co-operating. The police force in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and other cities with large German populations, are making an exhaustive canvass to ascertain the addresses, occupations, sympathies, and possible activities of GermanAmericans, also the surveillance of German restaurants and clubs for the purpose of famililarising themselves with probable operations in the event of war.

The New York police have worked out elaborate details to meet the em-

ergency. Many sections of New York are almost exclusively a German population and these are under particularly close surveillance, with machine-guns, motor lorries, in case of .emergency. Cai, inet ministers realise the need for rigid precautions in preventing'plotting. The first step is the decision to •call out the National Guard to protect public works. - '

Many leading German-Americans are openly proclaiming their loyalty and giving pledges. A member of one German club refused to sign, asserting it was unnecessary. There is much comment on this action. The nature of the precautions is known to pro-Germans, causing them intense uneasiness. The knowledge of th e intention to inflict extreme penalties for plotting is thought likely to have a deterrent effect. Newspapers point out the firmest policy is the only way to prevent outrages. Meanw-hile a remarkable rush for naturalisation continues; pamphlets explaining how to become an American citizen sold like wildfire in tlie streets.