U.S. SPY SENSATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 145, 22 June 1938, Page 11

U.S. SPY SENSATION

GERMAN OFFICERS

18 GERMANS INDICTED

CHAIN OF INTRIGUE EXPOSED

EXTRAORDINARY PIECE OF DETECTION

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.)

NEW YORK, June 21

Although the ring never "cracked" a vital secret, what concerns the authorities is the broad scope of the conspiracy and its potentialities for subversive action in the future if unscotched. United States military .observers summed up the spy ring as an arm of the aggressive espionage organisation that Germany has been building up on a bureaucratic scale, its programme to develop progres-j sively with the growth of the German army and riavy, by making Nazi blood claims on all Germans resident abroad. Extending down from the key-men in Berlin was a line of agents searching for information concerning all divisions of America's defence. The most important of these agents were Lonkowski, a political and mechanical genius, and Eitel, who masked his operations behind a menial job on the German liner Europa. WORK STARTED IN 1935. The activities of the ring started in 1§35, when Lonkowski fled the country, one step ahead of United States naval Intelligence service agents. Now Lonkowski holds a high position in the Reich Air Ministry. He worked with

Gudenberg, a mechanic skilled in air design, in a Buffalo aeroplane factory.

Gudenberg was 'employed on the Curtiss Scout bomber, then in the experimental stage. He removed a blue print from the factory one night and Lonkowski photographed it, making several negatives covering the whole design. The next day Gudenberg returned the plan to the file.

Nothing was known of this until Lonkowski took a violin case containing the incriminating documents to a spy courier on a German ship. Lonkowski was stopped by the Customs guards and the violin case was confiscated. The nature of the negatives was not recognised immediately, but they were subsequently pieced together. It was then learnt that. Lonkowski had chartered a plane and made a good getaway, his wife following by ship.

Gudenberg, who was still not suspect, got a job with the Hall Aluminium Company, at Bristol, Pennsylvania, which was manufacturing a torpedo bomber for the navy. In the meantime he filed an application for a post in the naval aircraft factory at Philadelphia, but before starting he took fright at Ignatz Griebl's recent revelations as an apparently willing witness and fled the country while the going was good. THOSE INDICTED. Only four of those indicted are under arrest here. Thirteen others are resident in Germany and cannot be | extradited. The names of those resident in Germany are: — Captain-Lieutenant Udo von Bonim, chief of the Naval Intelligence Service. Captain-Lieutenant Herman Menzl von Binins, his assistant. William Lonkowski, civilian official at the Ministry of War, Berlin.

Captain - Lieutenant Erich Pfeiffer, chief of Naval Intelligence at Bremen. Captain-Lieutenant Ernest Muller, chief of Naval Intelligence at Hamburg. Werner Gudenberg. A man called Sanders, an assistant at Ffeiffer's office at Bremen. A man called Schmidt, assistant at Muller's office at Hamburg. Karl Schulter, political officer of the liner Bremen. Theodore Schultz, political officer of the liner New York. Karl Eitel and Herbert Jaenichen, former and present stewards respectively on the liner Bremen. ■Dr. -Ignatz -?Griebl, .J. ormer - head .of

DENIAL OF COMPLICITY

(Received June 22, 12.30 p.m.)

BERLIN, June 21,

The "New York Times" devotes two pages today to the indictment by a Federal Grand Jury in the United States Government's greatest peace-time spy hunt of 18 individuals, most of whom are highly-placed German officials, charged with the wholesale theft of military, aviation, and industrial secrets.

The story of the unravelling of the spy ring outrivals B. Phillips Oppenhcim's most melodramatic imaginings. It reveals that there existed an indirect line of intrigue by which inforrrfatiou obtained in the United States was communicated to Tolrio. This was a sort of backdoor circuit between the headquarters of the spy corps in Berlin and the Japanese army, and was used for the mutual exchange of military data in the interests of the anti-Communist alliance.

the American Nazis, who fled the country a few days before the Grand Jury hearing. One of those indicted, Jessie Jordan, is already serving four years' imprisonment in Scotland for espionage. The names of the four' held under arrest' here are:— Johanna Hoffman, a hairdresser on the liner Europa. Voss, who is accused of selling military secrets to Germany. Gunther Rumrich, a United States army deserter. Erich Glaser, a United States army private. SOME OF THE CHARGES. One charge is concerned with the theft of plans for the army's pursuit plane made by the Seversky Airplane Corporation, one of the world's fastest fighters.' Another charge is brought against three men and one woman of stealing and sending to Germany an army and navy radio telephone procedure book containing a confidential code.

Both Lonkowski and Gudenberg have been questioned before the grand- jury, but neither was guarded, the Government relying on their apparent willingness to testify. It became evident after their departure, however, that a powerful sinister influence had forced them to go.

One Government • Department believed that agents of the Gestapo (Nazi Secret Police) established themselves here for this purpose. This belief gained support today when an official disclosed that Carl Herman, held as a material witness, has been identified as a member of the Gestapo. GENESIS OF REVELATIONS. These revelations were made possible by the discovery early last February of a plot to abduct the American Army Colonel Eglin in Dundee, Scotland, by Gunther Rumrich (who is under arrest-here). Rumrich planned to rob Colonel Eglin of mobilisation plans for an anti-aircraft regiment. Information reached Washington in time to prepare a trap, but the plan was dropped. Rumrich worked with Griebl, who was regarded as the head of the New York centre of the Nazi spy fraternity. He became most active as a secret agent since the war, audaciously attempting to bribe young naval officers to betray secrets. He was able to send to Germany information concerning the strength of the troops stationed at the Panama Canal and at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn. He was born in Chicago 37 years ago, his father being an Austrian. ' •

' It was part of the conspiracy that Jessie Jordan and Otto Sanders should maintain an address at Dundee for. receiving documents from Rumrich in'the United States and forwarding them to

Pfeiffer in Germany. Meetings of the conspirators took place on specific dates at such far removed places as* the Hotel Eden, Berlin, the Astoria Club, Bremen, the Astor Hotel, New York, and the Hotel Taft, Buffalo, New York. MORAL INDICTMENT OF GERMANY. The "New York Times," pointing out that 14 of those indicted are in Germany, comments that the grand jury's action > appears to be mainly a moral indictment of the German nation. "Usually untraceable or unmentioned in such cases for diplomatic reasons," says the newspaper, "the reputed master-minds, who included officers of the German War .Ministry, were not only named, but indicted. Furthermore, for the first time since,, the investigation began, Germany was officially named as the Power responsible for an under-cover force that aggressively sought to pry out the best technical and military defence secrets' of the United States."

The "New York Herald-Tribune" points out that the Indictments make a charge that the espionage activities started on January 2,1935—a few hours after Herr Hitler, at a New Year reception in Berlin, called for honest cooperation between nations.

The man chiefly responsible for the uncovering of the spy ring is the chief agent of the Federal Bureau of Inves-

tigation, Leon G. Turrou, who was responsible for the detection of the Lindbergh baby kidnapper. He has been commended by the grand jury for an extraordinary piece of detection. Turrou worked 16 hours a day for nearly four months.

In reference to the United... States espionage case it is semi-offlciaily denied that any officers of the German defence ,f orce-are-involyed.