HOW TEUTON AGENTS RAISE MONEY IN U.S.A.

Taihape Daily Times, 19 September 1918, Page 3

HOW TEUTON AGENTS RAISE MONEY IN U.S.A.

How the Austro-Hungarian Government get control of the savings of immigrants to the United States was told in the trial of an American banker with Teuton sympathies. The trial took place in New York on July 11th, and the following information on this point was elicited; — The immigrants, upon their arrival in New York, were met at the piers by an agbnt of the bank who directed them to boarding houses, the keepers of which were representatives of the Trans-Atlantic institution. Even the servinces of clergymen were utilized to impress Austro-Hungarians with the importance of placing all their funds with the establishment whose controlling hand reached from Vienna. Millions of dollars worth of AustroHungarian and German war bonds were sold to these immigrants and to others who had become American citizens. On the day federal authorities seized the bank it had 14,000 depositor*and 60,000 customers located throughout the country. Its deposits totallec 7,000,000 dollars. Since its organisation it had sent a total of 182,000,000 kronen (72,800,000 dollars) to AustriaHungary. When war was declared to exist between the United States and the dual monarchy, the bank invited depositors to place remittances with it “for transmission after the war," °nd a big business was done in this branch.