QUIETLY BEGUN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 March 1942, Page 4

QUIETLY BEGUN

ELIMINATION OF AXIS AGENTS ACTION BY MEXICAN GOVERNMENT. IMPORTANT ARRESTS IN BRAZIL. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.40 a.m.) NEW YORK, March 25. The “Herald-Tribunes” Mexico City correspondent says the Government has quietly begun a thorough elimination of the Fifth Column in Mexico, in order to prevent its weakening the country’s defence from within, in case of an attack from without. Secret police are arresting many Germans and Japanese and some Italians linked with subversive or propagandistic activities. Fifth Columnists are being incarcerated in a fortress at Carlos Dcperote, on a dreary plateau 130 miles from Vera Cruz. A message from Rio de Janeiro says the Government has made two important arrests in the drive against Fifth Columnists. The apprehended men. include Renato Kosler, head of the Bayer Aspirin Company, which is owned by I. G. Farben, of the Industrie German. Dye Trust, also Henrich Unless, a German pastor. The police have obtained evidence that they are active members of the Gestapo and are controlling Nazi funds used for propaganda and espionage activities.