NAZI SPY-RING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 July 1940, Page 6

NAZI SPY-RING

ACTIVITIES IN AMERICA ESPIONAGE AND INTRIGUE. EXPLOITING DISCONTENT. NEW YORK, June 5. Since Fritz Kuhn, Fuehrer of the German-American Bund, and his principal lieutenant, the Latvian, James Wheeler-Hill, went to prison a few months ago after conviction for larceny and forgery in one case, and perjury in the other, the Nazis have become more careful. Thus the Bund continues its existence. with 70-odd chapters scattered over 19 states, protesting whenever the need arises that all its members are American citizens, and that it does, no violence to their American patriotism to have them remind themselves, by dressing as Sturntruppen, goosestepping. helling Hitler, and plastering swastikas about, that home is where the heart is. But though there are people—including the noted "G-men —jyho believe that Bund members sometimes do a little spying for the Vaterland, there is no public evidence of it. Long before the war began a German spy-ring was uncovered in the United States, and while its principals escaped capture, the subordinates were sent to Federal penitentiaries. That damped the Nazi spirit, as did the recent arrest in California of a Nazi agent who had stolen the plans of an American military aeroplane. Taken together with the sending to prison of Kuhn and Wheeler-Hill, these things seemed to have suggested to the Nazis that the air in America was not as stimulating as it had seemed to be. PERSUADING YOUTH. One activity, however, they have found it still possible, and —in their view—profitable, to pursue., an activity which has the additional charm of being comparatively safe. This is to encourage, principally by means of American Communists, “'fellow travellers.” and anglophobes, the maintenance of the Anti-interventionist sentiment in the country. Thanks largely to the unsatisfactory economic condition of the United States, and the consequent large unemployment, the youth of the country have been fertile soil for discontent. To the Nazis here, who care little why America stays out of the war, provided only she does stay out —since she could not possibly enter it on the German side—there has been a golden opportunity, of which they have been quick to lake advantage. Concealing their true character, they have been filtering into labour and Communist organisations, with the double design of keeping alive isolationist spirit and of fomenting labour disorders, if not producing actual sabotage, in key industries. The Government has not been idle. The head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation told a committee of the House of Representatives last January that long before the war began the bureau had compiled “extensive indices of all persons engaged in any activities that are possibly detrimental to the internal security of the United Sates,” and he disclosed that he had made plans for guarding 430 vital industrial plants from spies and saboteurs. Assisting in this work were army and navy intelligence officers. In 1939. he said, his bureau had .received 78,000 complaints of sabotage and espionage, the espionage complaints totalling 1651, as ngaingt 250 in 1938, and an average of only 35 over a number of preceding years. In one way, the country is better protected against German plots than it was during the World War. Of all the many Germans, or German-Americans, here, not more than 5 per cent —it has been competently estimated—are proNazi. IN SOUTH AMERICA. Nazi penetration of Central and South America varies in character and strength from republic to republic. It began as a legitimate trade drive, in which long-established German settlers. whether naturalised or. not, were exposed to continuous pressure and propaganda, and every effort was made to win the sympathies of the leading Ibero-American elements. But subsequent developments gave a sinister colouring to “the movement. Germany secured a predominant position in the air transport service of Brazil. Bolivia. Colombia, and Ecuador. Another alarming feature was the acquisition by Germans, especially in Panama and the Canal Zone, of landed properties and contracts, funds for which were believed to arrive in the German diplomatic bags. By 1938 Nazi propaganda was strong in the 215 German schools in Argentina. German intrigues in Argentine Patagonia are of outstanding interest. Here a local Federalist movement aiming at local autonomy was taken up by Nazi agents until the organising junta of the autonomist movement denounced the separatist propaganda as a move in the German colonial game. At the same time the president of the junta revealed that he had been approached by one Karl Furst, who assured him that a movement to set up a “United States of the south” would have German support. German economic penetration has gone far in the area, notably in the oilfields, the air services, and the wool trade, and the. Argentine Press, in dealing with these disclosures, referred to the "Patagonian Suddens.” 9

In Brazil the expulsion of 17,000 Germans in 1937 and the failure of the rebellion of the Integralistas (local Fascists who worked with the Nazis domiciled in Brazil), in 1938 were a German set-back, as was the Chileap Government’s action against the Nazification of schools and youth movements. In both countries, however, as in Peru, Ecuador. Uruguay, and Mexico. German firms and many German employees arc forced to make monthly payments towards German propaganda expenses. Recent reports from Panama indicate that similar pressure is being put on Norwegians. Dutch. Belgians. and Danes in several South American Slates, under threat of reprisals on their families in conquered territory should they refuse compliance. The latest news from Colombia shows a marked increase of Nazi activity in that republic, which might furnish a springboard for saboteurs and spies in the Panama Canal zone.