KAISER AND COUNT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4054, 10 May 1917, Page 5

KAISER AND COUNT.

SECRET WIRELESS PLANT IN NEW YORK.

A possible solution to one of the mysteries of the European war— namely, how the Kaiser in Berlin could communicate almost daily with Count yon Bernstorff, one-time German Ambassador in Washington—was suggested recently, when United States secret service men, under orders from Chief William J. FJynn, called upon' Mrs Hugo Reisinger at her home; 993 Fifth Avenue, opposite the Metropolitan Museum (says a despatch to the San Francisco "Chronicle ').

The secret service agents had information that Mrs Reisinger, whose father was Adolphus 'Busch, the wealthy brewer of St. Louis, had a wireless plant at her home, and that TUrs Reisinger had often received in her home Count vons* Bernstorff, Dr. . Loinrich Albert, Germany's commercial attache, and Captains Karl Boy-Ed and Franz yon Papen, naval and military attaches respectively. Investigation showed that for more than a year a receiving station for radio messages had been established on the roof of the Reisinger home. Several weeks ago, however, the plant was dismantled, and the entire equipment was shipped away. . This plant, it seems, was of an exceedingly costly and.powerful variety, stnd was equipped with the so-called "T?e Forest audian detector, which iB necessary for receiving messages from such a, long distance as Nauen, Germany, the site of the Emperor's wonderful radio station. . Mrs Reisinger, it is said, insisted that she had caused the wireless equipment to be torn from the roof the moment that she learned of its existonce. She denied that the man who operated the apparatus was a German reservist. It was learned, however, that the man who had constructed and listened to electric waves was Alexander Kagan, who served as butler in the Reisinger home, and was an expert electrician and a skilled wireless operator He recently resigned his position as btitler and departed to parts unknown. The presence of the secret service in the Reisinger home was discovered accidentally by reporters and enquiries were made of Chief William J. Flynn, who declined to give any information whatever concerning them there. ln--1 dependent investigation in various quarters brought out the truth of the visit and its puipose. It was learned also that the existence of the wireless plant was known for many months, and that the visits of Count yon Bernstorft and his Germanic colleagues also were known to the authorities. The reason for the remarkable equipment could not be explained by Mrs Reisinger. So cleverly was it installed on the roof and so neatly were the aerials strung along the house that it was practically impossible for an _ odserver from the street to discover them. One way in which the presence of the wireless equipment was ascertained was through a scrutiny made a short time -v£o by secret service agents as to the fames' of persons who had purchased the De Forest audian detectors.