UNITED STATES.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 October 1915, Page 5

UNITED STATES.

GERMAN SPIES ARRESTED. LEADERS IN A VAST PLOT, .„■ Received Oct. 26, 1.50 a.m. New York, Oct. 25. In the arrest of Robert Fay, a lieutenant of the German army, and Walter Scnolz, his brother-ißrlaw, the Federal Secret Service believes to have detained the leaders of a plot to wreck American munition factories and ships carrying munitions. Fay is said to have confessed to a plan of stopping the shipment of munitions. He said he was supplied with two thousand dollars for the carrying out of operations. Papers found on him show him to be a German secret service agent. VSSt quantities of explosives and survey maps of New York harbor were found ia his rooms. AN AMERICAN DEMAND. COMPLAINT OF BRITISH BLOCKADE, Washington, Oct. 24. The American Note to Britain on the blockade of German ports and the seizure of American cargoes declares that the British Ordcra-in-Council are illegal tinder international law, and void. Moreover, they are discriminatory, inasmuch as Scandinavia is aJble to ship to Germany while America cannot. The blockade does not bind neutrals unless it is actually accomplished. The Note denies that the increase in American exports proves that shipments go to Germany. It also denies that the burden of proof rests on the shippers, and insists that neutrals are entitled to ship non-contrajbaud goods to Germans. An emphatic demand is made for the freedom of the seas. A TRADE COMBINATION. TO DEFEAT TEUTONIC ENDS. Washington, Oct. 24. The United States Government has sanctioned the formation of an Overseas Trust Company to handle American products abroad, with assurances that none will reach any of the belligerents belonging to the Teutonic combinations. The company will be exactly on the lines of the Netherlands Overseas Trust Company. Its formation is regarded as a notable success for British diplomacy, and will tend to obviate the existing causes of friction in trade between Britain and the United States. Despite the Anglo-French war credit New York sterling exchange has reacjied a new low point, and is now four dollars sixty-four cents.