REPORTERS AS DETECTIVES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 71, 23 March 1918, Page 17

REPORTERS AS DETECTIVES.

Si? *__« l*'iT »*^s?___a:_sr¥___£: WfiL-t ____-. — *" '-Enters now Dr. H.inricll Albert fr. ih tnr , . ?- Goverllment t°at lie mar Have forty mffli ons a ito g ether-to buy public gre S s_je_. to procure the murder of Amertand r?r S V V ° rUinS iU munitlon P^ nt s. "cutS l-° ttCr Wendly ' aCtS tow « d °" „_, , B, °' ern! *'Cat and its unsuspectlns People. Dr. Albert landed tn New York and registered at the Rltz-Carlton Hotel. -Mc nrote at once to Ambassador Bernstorff. announcing his arrival and asking tor Instructions. "The ambassador happened to be taking i an ontlng in tbe Adlrondaeks when Dr. A_bert s letter reached the embassy. The letter was delivered on Saturday afternoon —and tbe mail clerks at _>•_ -mbassv were habitually granted a -i-acation Crom Saturday noon to 0 o'clock Monday morning. The embassy secretaries, however, often stayed at their desks on Saturday afternoon; and so it happened that Mr Katlioni's man there got the letter, along with others, and, without apparently disturbing the envelope, read tbe contents. Without a moment's hesitation he took the next train to New York and telegraphed Mr Rathom He was met in New York by another reporter from 'The Providence Journal.' "Next morning this other reporter, in Sunday top hat and frock coat, appeared j. the Ritz-Carlton aud asked for Dr. Albert. He was shown up to the doctor's Buite nnd there presented to Dr. Albert his own letter to Yon Bernstorff. and said the ambassador had sent him to discuss the situation with him. But first he must be assured that he was really addressing Dr. Albert, and not some possible untrustworthy underling. Dr. Albert produced credentials of bis identity, and ever, called in members of his suite to prove that he was himself—-forgetting, in the heat of his earnestness to demand a similar guarantee from his caller. That would hardly have seemed necessary even If be bad reflected, for there was his own letter, brought lo him from Washington. "Having satisfied his visitor. Dr. Albert went at length Into his mission—tbe precise Purposes of it. the money he bad In hand and in prospect—all tbn details. His caller congratulated him. bade him good day, and left: and immediately restored tbe letter to his brother reporter, who took tbe afteinoon train back to Washington, resealed the letter, and replaced it in the Embassy mail thnt night. "On Monday, one of the mall clerks at tbe Embassy opened the letter and laid it. as a matter of routine, on the Ambassador's desk. Bernstorff appeared on Tuesday, and as soon as be read It he telePhoned Dr. Albert to come to Washington. "The two men met the following mornlag at the embassy and embraced In tbe Presence of 'The Journal' reporter. And tie first words Dr. Albert, spoke were to praise his excellency upon his choice of 'r*o discreet and admirable an agent' as lie aad sent to him In New York. Then there was a scene. BernstorlT denied sending any messenger, and Albert reaffirmed It. The mail clerk was called In and declared he had slit the envelope with his own hand. Albert repeated that he had had that very letter, physically, back In his hand, from the inesseo.er. on Sunday. Besalt: Two badly perturbed agents of the Kaiser, and the ultimate exposure of Dr. Albert in 'The Providence Journal.' "