GERMAN INTRIGUES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 49, 21 November 1917, Page 7

GERMAN INTRIGUES

IN SOUTH AMERICA

SOME INTERESTING EXPOSURES

An interesting account appears In a iecent issue of "Chambers's Journal" of German doings on tho west coast of South" America. It is written hv W. Scott Lorrie. Referring to the stay tho transport Prinz Eitel IMedrich in Papudo Bay, where the commander refused to recognise the authority of the Government representative, llerr BethmaunHollweg stated that from investigations it appeared that the,call at Papudo was made in order to land the. wife and family of the captain of the British steamer Charras. and that the German commander was not aware that there was a Chilian official at the i lace. "Still," says Mi , . Lorrie, ."tliore was a .wide gap between ,the wheedling allegations arising from German diplomacy and public opinion in Chile. AVhile the latter was incensed by the conviction that the reports of German encroachments were true, and tbo thought of their injustice acted upon public opinion with exasperating effect, the former, with priggish sang-froid, contended that there had been no violation of neutrality, ana with rcmarkabb-.chftrlishness accused the Chilian authorities almost directly ot being .blockheads and duffers at a came which, it was doubtless meant, they knew nothing about.' What logic could convince such law-breakers? What has fceen said about German■ P««7. » n h °l e waters-is only one-tenth of the. tiuth. fl'hey .played their game, and partially won Thanks to their ecret wiroloss installations, they got coal «d ™ «« J when and where thoy/eased and hen steamers entered and from Chilian ports without, their P»P«« *"»■ (dispatches. In one instance, when a Chilian authority personally ordered the detention of a German steamer, the commander grossly insulted him, and paid, 'Tho only man I am under duty to in these days is the Kaiser.

A Mysterious Vessel. SmSm +!,,( olin carried wiroless instaiiauuii, Kiddenly came that she had got away. It is said that she was manned by some 2 i: Dresden's ere* who interned on Quiriqmna. The Chilian «° Tcr " ment took severe, measures against tUe nwnpr of the vessel-a berroan by wrcu done in this respect proved of no avail, for the whereabouts of the vessel could not be discovered. What has beoomod this mysterious vessel? Hα?- she ialien into the hands of some British cruiser Time will some day, perhaps, throw light of any German agent in South America ■win the stupendous enterprise undertaken Smos Steamship liner.: At about the time when the United States eovered diplomatic relations with Germany■ th s man Krause was engaged in.laying the etrings with which later he would set his plans in motion. He managed ..to bow the seed of discord in the Peruvian Nary, which resulted in the resignation of eeveral well-known Naval offices, ucludin" the commanders of two Peruvian submarines. He put .up several secret wireless installations along the coast ol Peru, and got « gang of Gorman agents and spies to work the scheme he had dovised when tho signal .to do so should ,C °"The commanders of tho Peruvian submarines out of the way, Kransee next step was to.get the two vessels to a certain island, where a- German crew would be ready to take them over. But before putting, such: knavish machinations into practice ho must quit tho country and go to. Mexico, .reeling assured "that the arrangements ho had niiidu in Peru would be. carried out without a hitch, he left Callao in the Panama-bound steamer Maipo. But it Kvause and his lot had been smart, the British agents had, indeed, not been lagging behind, for when tho Maipo was ' well out to sea slio was stopped by an auxiliary cruiser flying tho Union Jack abaft, and half-way up her foremast some such signal sis this: 'We request that you hand over to us German pn soner of war;'- The order was. complied ■with without th,e lwist ado, and Krausc was transferred to the war vessel, whicli must have given him into safe keepine long ago- It was a fortunate capture, for had he been allowed to reach Mexico, his plans might hav& been carried out in such a way as vould have meant a serious set-back to British shipping jnteresta on the West Coast of South America. With the two submarines mentioned, and en abundantly supplied station somewhers

in Mexico, for instance, Krause could havo challenged British shipping during all the time it might take to capture or sink tho stolen submarine.

Crooked Work. "For one who has lived in tho very place where all these things have happened, aud has heard the bitter words to which such acts havo given rise the German reply to the claims, especially of tho Chilian Government, has no justification. We are convinced that the Gormaus will never realise that justice may sometimes bo on the side other than their own. Their belief is that the one way of thinking that must needs predominate is the German way. The only truth is that which bears the seal of Gorman sanction, anil, what is more, no people in the world are competent to judge things in a light equal to that professed by the Germans to bo the true light— their own. So what is 'he use of arguing the point with such hardheads? A German fieot, comprising tlifi Keharnhorst, the Gncisenaii, and several transports, lay at anchor at Enstor Island for twelve days, and transMpped. four thousand tons of coal. The German liner Seydlitz, after taking in five thousand tons of coal at Valparaiso, obtained her dispatches for Bremen; the steamer Santa Isabel shipped a large quantity of coal at Valparaiso, and transhipped it in the Atlantic to German warships, and returned to Valparaiso for more, when she was interned.

"Here is another example of German j crookedness. When von Spee's fleet was s marauding in Chilian waters it was mot j by a largo Hamburg-Amerikan cargo steamer, whose original name had beeii exchaugod for the less comikromising <ue of Sacramento. This steamer was dispatched from San Francisco by a group of Gorman agonts; who hud the nerve to constitute themselves into a company for the purpose of this one voyage. Ihe pi EC was worked in this way. The steamer was loaded with coal and provisions. Aβ the cdmpany to which she belonged was domiciled in the United States, she naturally flew tho American flag. From San Francisco sho was dispatched to Valparaiso.- where ehe was consigued to the Electric Traction Company, a German concern. At Easter Island or Juan Fernandez tho precious cargo was transhipped to the German warships. Having successfully filled her mission, tho Saoramento put into Valparaiso to coal and victual. The Chilian naval antliorifies became suspicious of tho good faith of Ui'j cs;!:n!«nder, who furnished somewhat contradictory information as to his voyage. Recognising the steamer to be the one they had received and dispatched on previous occasions under another name, they decided that she should bo interned, despite the German claim that tho vessel was American, since sho belonged to a company legally organised according to the Constitution of tho United States. . "Thoro aTO many other incidents connected with the German movements in tho Pacific, some of which have acquired a similarity to legendary tales An official narrates tho story that while on. duty at 3 o'clock one morning no witnessefl a small vessel enter tho bay ot Valparaiso, and then disappear almost immediately. A steam launch was sent I to make a reconnaissance, but tho mysterious vessel managed to get out of the way What could such a. vessel ho doing at Buch an hour? The truth wil never leak out; but it is prohable that she was met by German agents, who delivered messages from the German Government j for the commander of the German fleet Mn the Pacific."