GERMAN INTRIGUES.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1917, Page 7

GERMAN INTRIGUES.

| IN SOUTH AMERICA. SOME INTERESTING EXPOSURES. An interesting account appears in a recent istue of Chambers' Journal of German doings on the west coast of South America. It is written by W. Scott I.orrie. Referring to the stay the transport Prinz Eitel Friedrich in Papudo Bay, where the commander remsed to recognise the authority of the ; Government representative, llerr Be'thmunnliollweg stated that from investigations i.t appeared that the call at Papudo was made in order to land the wife and family -of the captain of the British steamer Chareas, and that the German commander was not aware that there was a Chilian official at the place. "Still," savs Mr Lorrie, "there was a wide gap between the wheedling allegations arising from German diplomacy and public opinion in Chile. While the latter was incensed by the conviction that the reports oi 1 German encroachments were true, and the thought of their injustice ated upon public opinion with exasperating effect, the former, with priggish sangfroid, contended that there had liecn no violation of neutrality, and with remarkable churlishness accused the Chilian 'authorities almost directly of being blockheads and duffers at a game which, it was doubtless meant, 'they knew nothing about.' What logic could convince such iaw-breakers ? What has been said about German piracy in those waters is only one-tenth of the truth* They played their game, and partially won. Thanks to their ecret wireless installations, they got coal and victuals when and where thev pleased, and their steamers entered and departed from Chilian ports without their papers and dispatches. Tn one instance, when a Chilian authority personally ordored the detention of a German steamer, the commander grossly insulted him. and said, 'The only man I am under duty to in these days is the Kaiser.'

A MYSTERIOUS VESSEL, '■The recent disappearance of tfie Chilian barquo Tinto is another proof of German conspiracy. She left port sev-, oral months ago, and lias not been seen or heard of since. Only a =hore time before she had tried to deceive the local authorities in a similar way. A rumor went round that the barquo had been char.icteml by German agents, and that she carried wireless installation, coal, and provisions destined probably for some submarine station in the Atlantic. A (iovernnient inspector was at once dispatched to the spot, and the vessel was not cledred. After the usual comment to whih such m:i I tors are wont to give riso, the affair drifted into oblivion, until the news suddenly earn.! that, she had jfot away. It is said that she was manned by some of the Dresden's) crew who wr« interned on Qniriquina. The Chilian Government took severe measures against the owner of the vessel—a German by birth—and sent out several vesslcs to search the Strait of Magellan. flat what was done in this respect proved of no avail for the whereabouts of the vessel could not be discovered. What has, become of this mysterious vessel? Has she fallen into the hands of some British cruiser? Time will some day, perhaps, throw light 011 this dark deed. . "Hut the most recent and daring act of any German agent in South America was the stupendous enterprise undertaken not long ago by 0. Krause, This man, formerly a captain in the merchant marine, had been acting for many years as ageiit at Callac, Peru, of the German Kosmos Steamship line. At about the time when the United States severed diplomatic relations with Germany, thi& man Krause was engaged in toying the strings with which later he won hi set his plans in motion. He managed to sow the seed of discord in the Peruvian Navy, which resulted in the resignation 0? several well-known Naval officer.?, including the commanders of two Peruvian submarines He put up several secret wireless installations along the coast of Peru, and got a gang of German agents and spies to work the scheme lie had devised wdien the signal to do so would comc. "The commanders of the Peruvian submarines out of the way, Krause's next step was to get the two vessels to a certain island, where a German crew would be ready to take them over. But before putting'such knavish machinations into practice he must quit the ountry and go to Mexio. Feeling assured that the arrangements he had made in Peru would be avried out Without a hitch, lie left Cnllao in the Panama-bound steamer Maipo. But if Krause and his lot had been smart, the British agents had, indeed, not been lagging behind, for when the Maipo was well out to sea she was stopped by an auxiliary cruiser flying the Union Jack abaft, and half-way up her foremast some such signal as this: 'We request that yon hand over 10 us German prisoner of war.' The order was complied with without the least ado, and Krause was transferred to the war vessel, which must have given 'him into safe keeping long ago. It was a fortunate capture, for had l\c been allowed to reach Mexico, his plans might have been carried out in suh a way as Would have meant a serious set-bale to British shipping interests on the West Const of South America. With the two subiimrhies mentioned, and an abundantly supplied station somewhere in Mexico, for instance, Krause could have challenged British shipping during all the tme it might take to capture or sink the stolen submarine.

CROOKED WORK. 'Tor one who lias lived in the very place where all these things have happened, and has heard the bitter words' to which such acts have given rise, the German reply to the claims, especially of the Chiilan Government, lias no justification. Wo are convinced that the Germans will never realise that justice may sometimes he on the side other than their own. Their belief is that the one way of thinking that must ntfti'ls predominate is the German way. Tlie only truth is that which hears the scptf of German sanction, and, what is more, no people in the world are competent to inline things in a lipht eoual to that professed by the Germans to I)!' tlu> trim light—their own. So what is the use of availing the point with, such hardheads? A German fleet, comprising the Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau, and several transports, lay at anchor at Easter Island for twelve days, and transhipped four thousand tons of eoal. Tlie German liner Sevtllil z. after taking in five thousand tons of coal at Valparaiso, obtaiiiej her dispatches for Bremen: tiie steamer Santa Isabel shipped a lar.se quantity n? t-oal at Valparaiso, and transhipped it in the Atlantic to German waraluDS Vft-

turned to Valparaiso for more, when she was interned.

"Here is another example of German crookedness. When von Spec's Hoot was marauding in Chilian waters ii was met by a liirgft llamkurg-Aincrikan eanro steamer, whose original name had been exchanged for the less compromising one of Saeramento. This steamer was dispatched from San Francisco by a group of German agents, who had the nerve to constitute themselves into a company for the purpose of this one voyage. 'The plan nas worked in this way. The stoamei v.as loaded with coal and provisions. As the company to which she belonged was domiciled in the United States, she naturally Hew the American Hag. I'i'Om San Francisco she was dis-. patched to Valparaiso, where she was consigned to the Electric Traction Company, a German concern. At Kaster Island or Juan Fernandez the precious cargo was transhipped to the German warships. Having successfully fdlcd her mission, the Sacramento put into Valparaiso to coal and victual. The Chilian naval authorities became suspicious of the good faith of the commander, who furnished somewhat contradictory information as to his voyage. "Rccoonisin" the steamer to l 0 the one they had re°coiu.'d and dispatched on previous occasions under another name, they decided that she should he interned, despite the German claim that the vessel was American., since sho belonged to a company loyally organised according to the Constitution of the United States. "There are many other incidents connected with th:> German movements in the Pacific, some of which have acquira similarity to legendary tales. An official narrates the story that while on duty at. 3 o'clock one morning he. witnessed a small vessel enter t.lTo Bay of Valparaiso, and then disappear almost immediately. A steam launch was sent to make a reconnaissance, but the mysterious vessel managed to get out of the way. What could such a vessel ho doing fit such an hour? The truth will-never teak out; but it is probable that she was met by German agents, who delivered messages from the German Government for the commander of the German fleet in the Pacific."