ESPIONAGE & INTRIGUE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 June 1938, Page 7

ESPIONAGE & INTRIGUE

REVELATIONS IN UNITED STATES Moral Indictment of German Nation STORY OF ASTONISHING EXPLOSIVE By Telegraph—Press Association.— Copyright. NEW YORK, June 21. The “New York Times” devotes two pages today to the indictment by a Federal grand jury (reported yesterday) in the United States Government’s greatest peace-time spy hunt of 18 individuals, most of whom are highly-placed German officials, charged with the wholesale theft ot military, aviation and industrial secrets. . nwiiins The story of the unravelling of the spy ring outrivals E. Phillips Oppenheim’s most melodramatic imaginings. It reveals that there ex>ste an indirect line of intrigue by which information obtained in, the United States was communicated to Tokio. This was a sort of backdoor circuit between the headquarters of the spy corps in Berlin and the Japanese army, and was used for the' mutual exchange of military data in the interests of the anti-Communist alliance. Although the ring never “cracked” a vital secret, what concerns the authorities is the broad scope of the conspiracy and its potentialities for subversive action in the future if unscotched. United States military observers summed up the spy ring as an arm of the aggressive espionage organisation that Germany has been building up on a bureaucratic scale. Its g programme is to develop progressively with the growth of the German army and navy, by making Nazi blood claims on all, Germans resident abr °Extending down from the key-men in Berlin was a line of agents searching for information concerning all divisions of America s defence.

THE IMPORTANT AGENTS.

The most important of these agents were Lonkowski, a political and mechanical genius ' and Eitel, who masked his operations behind a menial job on the German liner Europa. The activities of the ring started in 1935 when Lonkowski fled the country, one’step ahead of the United States naval intelligence service agents. Now Lonkowski holds a high position in the Reich Air Ministry. He worked with Gudenberg, a mechanic skilled in air design, in a Buffalo aeroplane factory. Gudenberg was employed on tne Curtiss scout bomber, then in an experimental stage. He removed' the blue print from the factory one night and Lonkowski photographed it, making several negatives covering the whole design. Gudenberg returned the plan to the file on the next day. Nothing was known of this until Lonkowski took a violin case containing the incriminating documents to a spy courier on a German ship. Lonkowski was stopped by the Customs guards and the violin case was confiscated. The nature of the negatives was not recognised immediately, but they were subsequently pieced tolt was then learnt that Lonkowski had chartered a plane and made a good getaway, his wife following by ship. Gudenberg, who was still not suspected, got a job with the Hall Aluminium Company, at Bristol, Pennsylvania, which was manufacturing a torpedo bomber for the navy. In the meantime he filed an application for a post in the naval aircraft factory at Philadelphia,... but- before starting he took fright at Ignatz Griebl’s recent revelations as an apparently willing witness and fled the country while the going was good. NAMES OF THE ACCUSED. Only four of those indicted are under "arrest here. Thirteen others are resident in Germany and cannot be extradited. The names of those resident in Germahy are:— Captain-Lieutenant Udo von Bonin, chief of the Naval Intelligence Service. Captain-Lieutenant Herman Menzl von Binins, his assistant. •. ! William Lonkowski, civilian official at the Ministry of War, Berlin. Captain-Lieutenant Erich Pfeiffer, chief of Naval Intelligence at Bremen. Captain-Lieutenant Ernest Muller, chief of Naval Intelligence at Hamburg. Werner Gudenberg. ' A man called Sanders, an assistant at Pfeiffer’s office at Bremen. A man called Schmidt, assistant at Muller’s office at Hamburg. Karl Schulter, political officer of the liner Bremen. Theodore Schuetz, political officer of the liner New York. Karl Eitel and Herbert Jaenichen, former and present stewards on the linor Bremen. Dr Ignatz Griebl, former head of the American Nazis, who fled the country a few days before the grand jury hearing. One indictee, Jessie Jordan, is already serving four years in Scotland for espionage. The names of the fou! held under arrest here are: Hoffman, a hairdresser on the liner Europa; Voss, who is accused of selling military secrets to Germany; Guenther Rumrich, a United States army deserter; and Erich Glaser, a United States army private. One charge is concerned with the theft of plans for the army’s pursuit plane made by the Seversky Airplane Corporation, one of the world’s fastest fighters. Another charge is brought against three men and one woman of stealing and sending to Germany an army and navy radio telephone procedure book, containing a confidential code.

WITNESSES ’WHO FLED Both Lonkowski and Gudenberg have been questioned before the Grand Jury, but neither was guarded, the Government relying on their apparent willingness to testify. It became evident after their - departure, however, that a powerful sinister influence had forced them to go. One Government department believ 7 ed that agents of the Gestapo (Nazi Secret Police) established themselves here for this purpose. This belief gained support today when an official disclosed that Carl Herman, held as a material witness, has been identified as a member of the Gestapo. These revelations were made possible by the discovery early last February of a plot to abduct the American Army Colonel Eglin in Dundee, Scotland, by Guenther Rumrich (who is under arrest, here). Rumrich planned to rob Colonel Eglin of mobilisation plans for an anti-aircraft regiment. Information reached Washington in time to prepare a trap, but the plan was dropped. , Rumrich worked with Griebl, who was regarded as the head of the New York centre of the Nazi spy fraternity. He became most active as a secret agent since the war, audaciously attempting to bridge young naval officers to betray secrets. He was able to send to Germany information concerning the strength of the troops stationed at the Panama Canal and at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn. He was born in Chicago 37 years ago, the son of an Austrian father. NEW YORK PRESS COMMENT The “New York Times,” pointing out that 14 of those indicted are in Germany, comments that the Grand Jury’s action appears to be mainly a moral indictment of the German nation. “Usually untraceable or unmentioned in such cases for diplomatic reasons,” says the newspaper, “the reputed master-minds’, who included officers of the German War Ministry, were not only named, but indicted. Furthermore, for the first time since the investigation began, Germany was officially named as the Power responsible for an under-cover force that aggressively sought to pry out the best technical and military defence secrets of the United States.” The “New York Herald-Tribune” points out that the indictments make a charge that the espionage activities started on January 2, 1935 —a few hours after Hitler, at the New Year reception in Berlin, called for honest co-operation, between nations. The man chiefly responsible for the uncovering of the spy ring is the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s ace agent, Leon G. Turrou, who was responsible for the detection of the Lindbergh’baby kidnapper. He has been commended by the Grand Jury for an extraordinary piece of detection. Turrou worked 16 hours daily for nearly four months. AN ELABORATE NETWORK. DUNDEE AS FORWARDING STATION. (Reed This Day, 9.25 a.m.) NEW YORK, June 21. It was part of the conspiracy that Jessie Jordan and Otto Sanders should maintain an address at Dundee, for receiving documents from Rumrich in the United States and forwarding them to Pfeiffer in Germany. There were meetings of the conspirators, on specific dates, at such far-removed places at the Hotel Eden, Berlin, the Astoria Club. Bremen, the Astor Hotel. New York, the Hotel Taft, New York, and the Hotel Buffalo, New York.