NEUTRAUTY BREAKERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 21, 24 January 1917, Page 5

NEUTRAUTY BREAKERS.

FINE AliD IMPRISONMENT/ 1 GEBJUAX CONSITLS PUKIBHED. (Au-itrrjian and N.Z. Cable AMocUtlon.j, SAX KRAXCISCO, January 22. "' - ~ Tli / \?.?. rman Co nsul Bopp, Baron Br'uw (Military Attache), and others were m* .need to two years' imprisonmentJ£ - a. Sno of i2 ifl oo sterling for a breach of ' tTio d a g e ,ir W B t? PP T- a " * com P at « ot s were alleged ,\y the Unr.tecl States Government to have , planned to blow up munition plants iv (America : Ul d Canada and steamships '• carrying supplies to the AlUes, together with raf)way bridges and military trains ' iwo .-ictious were consolidated in the •' present proceedings before William Hunt, sitting as United States district ; ; judge, the informal charge l>eing a con spira-y against ihe neutrality laws of the Lnr«>d States. Specifically the charges "■'■ wr Je a violation of the Act of July, 1890 ' Ijy conspiring to restrain inter-State and foreign commerce by destroying factories .4 railways and steamships. The other action was for violation of sections 13 and ' '-' 37 of the United States criminal code in '.;■:•. conspiring to begin to set on foot ana '. provide and prepare for military enter- ! prise to be carried on from within the United States against the territory and dominion of the King of Great Britainand Ireland.

Besides Bopp, -the defendants included Baron E. M. yon Schack (Vice-Consul) \ Lieut. Wilhelm yon Brincken, J. F. van Koolbergen, Charles C. Crowley, and Louis J. Smith. Smith was one of the I chief witnesses for the Government, havi ing been promised immunity for giving 1 his testimony in the preliminary- inquiry Dynamite plots that stretched across , vie American continent and. extended, into Canada, to include every railway line engaged in transporting soldiere W "munitions of war to Great Britain and : lier allies -were told by Mr Preston (Pub-" lie Presecutor) in his opening statement to the jury. Declaring that he would be able to establish by witnesses that these plots were the direct result of conspiracyentered into-between Bopp and his associates, Preston told the jjury that the Government would place jts chief reli- ' ance on the testimony of Louis J. Smith, one of the conspirators, -who had hired - himself out to the German Consulate as r a professional dynamiter after a confer- ■'- ence he had iir the German House in San Francisco with Lieut, yon Brincken, the' German Military Attache. - Preston held up Crowley, the privateinquiry agent of the German Consulate as the" man who directed Smith in all the dynamite plots. He. described the destruction of a barge of dynamite in Taconia in May, 1915. after it had been shipped from the Hercules powder works at Pinole, California, and was awaiting transhipment in the northern port to Vladivostok for the Eussian Government, bmith, according to Preston, would have to testify that Crowley directed: him in . the work of destroying this barge, and that they had a secret rendezvous a\on<r the Tacoma waterfront, fr&n which tfiev could observe the loading of ships with war munitions intended for Great Britain, Russia, Japan, Italy, France; Belgium and Canada. - Preston also promised to produce evidence before the jury ■ " to convince them that Crow-lev and Smitli secretly conspired between themselves to r; pad their expenses accounts and obtain ''■'■.'-'■ money from, the German Consulate fop ' ■■'; j supposed dynamite jobs in the Dominion of Canada, which ia reality never took place. , On one ooMuon, according to Preston, they were actually paid for suca , fictitious work, the money being given to themat the Palace Hotel, San Francisco; by Lieut. Ton Brincken. ' ■ Preston mentioned mc other details of the alleged .conspiracy the destruction of - the ; St. Clair-tunnel .-undeE the Detroit ! Kiyer from Port Huron, -Michigan, t<. v Sarnia;-,pn the ■ Canadian shore; the; Canadian-Pacific tunnel in the Selkirk Mountains, knd bridges and terminals of the Grand: Trunk railway system in Canada, used in transporting" soldiers, : •horses, mules and .munitions -of war to -- Great Britain and the Allies. The" powder works of the Hereulee Company '■-*: at Pinole, the Dupont works'in Washington, the Aetna Explosive Company's works at Ishpeming, Michigan, and the stockyards in Chicago were also named by Preston as among the plants supply-: ing war "munitions and, supplies to the . Allies, which were to be ■- dynamited by the conspirators. Preston said that he would prove that Smith, as \the professional dynamiter, who did the? actual work, received from a German Consulate " ' a salary of 300 dollars a month and expenses, and was promised a bonus' fop every successful job that he accomplished.