ALLEGED GERMAN PLOT.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 October 1915, Page 10 (Supplement)

ALLEGED GERMAN PLOT.

DESIGNS ON VANCOUVER. GERMAN PACIFIC FLEET. NEFARIOUS SCHEME FAILS. The Vancouver Daily Province states that facts have been brought to light of a German plot arranged months before the declaration of war, to capture Vancouver on the very day of outbreak of hostilities. "Had the nefarious designs of the men, who called Vancouver their home, been brought to a successful termination this city," says the paper, "instead of mourning the death of but one of her citizents by the guns of the German Pacific squadron, Dr. F. L. de 'Vertcuil, who met a gallant death on the deck of the Good Hope, would in all probability have suffered a worse late than Hartlepool and Scarborough, which were shelled by the Germans last year. "In February of last year, Alvo von Alvensleben, whose activities are already well known throughout the province, and who, it is stated, was later 'created' Governor of British Columbia by the Kaiser, was in Germany. From Berlin he sent advices by cable and letter to a Teutonic resident of this city, who claims American citizenship, and now resides in Seattle, to call a meeting of those whom he could trust. The object of this meeting was to agitate the citizens of Vancouver and Victoria during the summer montlw, and invite their own destruction.

INVITATION TO GERMAN WARSHIPS. "In accordance with the instructions of Alvensleben a meeting was held, not in the German Club, where gatherings of that nature were usually convened, but in a room in a down-town hotel. There were several members of the German Club who were 'true to their salt,' and could not be trusted to plot against the nation and city which was giving them their daily bread. These men were excluded from the meeting. Private invitations were given to those who, it is said, could be relief upon, and they were sworn to secrecy as to what transpired behind the closed doors to which they were admitted after scrutiny. "Several meetings in private were later held by those vitally interested in the scheme, and the only information which leaked out was that it was to be announced at a later date that the Scharnhorst, Gniesenau, Nurnberg, Leipsic, and Geier were to pay a friendly visit to San Francisco and Seattle in return for the visit paid to Germany several years before by the United States fleet, which encircled the world. "The date set for the arrival of the ships was to be, it transpires, about the time that Germany had prepared to deflare war. Not only did the Germans plan the destruction of Canada's western seaports, but the same Germans who acted as agents in this country had much to do with the troubles incident to the Komagata Maru, in the hope that it would cause friction between the two great dominions, Canada and India. At the trial of the Lahore conspirators in India, an approver, formerly connected with the seditious Gaddar paper, published in San Francisco and circulated throughout this province, told on the witness stand to visiting the German Consul at a Chinese port about the time of the Komagata Mara troubles. Germans in this city, who later escaped to the United States, were also suspected of having done much to foment the trouble.

FEAR OF A BRITISH CRUISER, "On the night of the clash between the East Indian immigrants and the police on hoard of the Sea Lion a mysterious gasoline launch, showing no lights, suddenly Appeared on the further side of the Sea Lion, and from its cabin three shots were fired across the tug's decks at the Hindoos clustered about the rail of the Komag&ta Maru. The authorities never discovered who occupied that launch, and it is suspected that they were Germans. "As a matter of fact the Germans attempted to carry out an assault on the British Columbia coast. The Lcipsic was afraid alone to enter the Straits of Juan de Fuca, guarded by the Rainbow and two submarines; but a little later the Nnrnberg, evidently furnished with coal and other supplies by German agents either in Mexican or Northern Pacific waters, is believed to have gone as far north as Prince Rupert. The reason she feared to pounce on that city was the belief that the British cruiser Newcastle was in the neighbourhood. Fearing a combat with that doughty vessel the Nnrnberg headed away south again and poined the main squadron of Von Spee."