NAZI AGENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 2, 2 July 1940, Page 6

NAZI AGENTS

REALITY OF DAHGER

AUSTRALIAN REVELATIONS

(By Trans-Tasman Air IWail. from "The PosiV Representative.) SYDNEY, June 19. Mr. Arthur M. Pooley, Sydney journalist, a former Reuter correspondent in Japan, and recognised here as an authority on international affairs, said, in an address to a Sydney club, that the Federal Government was fully aware of the activities of the Nazi fifth column in Australia from information contained in official documents seized on the internment of German nationals. Members of tihe German' Gestapo were also in Australia. Their duty was to watch the Australian Nazi leaders as well as the rank and file of the Nazi Party. , Mr. Pooley said that Australia, like! other countries, had a Naii organisation under the control of an official for the whole continent, with head offi- ' cials for each State and for the principal cities. Under this scheme full information respecting the life history and activities of all Germans in Australia was sent to Berlin, where it was filed. This applied also to Germans who were naturalised Australian subjects. The German Government did not recognise this naturalisation, so that there were many persons in Australia with a dual nationality. This was a serious problem from the Commonwealth Government standpoint. The object of the "fifth column" in Australia, Mr. Pooley added, was to make friends with Australian people of influence and importance by propaganda and false friendship, to work through musical and cultural societies, ,and to send valuable information -to Germany by radio and other means. "Fifth column helpers of Germany do not consist entirely of Germans, whether naturalised or not," Mr. Pooley added. "They include all those people in the .trains, trams, ferries, or in the street "who say, The news is very bad today,' or 'The Government is not doing its best to win the war.'" RAIDS IN QUEENSLAND. Startling dimensions of Fascist and Communist organisations in Queensland were revealed as a result of raids made by Commonwealth investigators and police, who are now in possession of a huge quantity of arms, ammunition, documents, and books. There were at least four branches of the Fascist party in Queensland. Fascist uniforms, literature, and badges were found in raids in Brisbane, and some j Italians, including a doctor, gave up literature and black shirts. Some of Hie documents seized included the Constitution in other countries, signed by Mussolini. Behind an apparently innocuous Constitution was veiled an organisation that in Queensland alone concealed thousands of rifles and shotguns, at least 80,090 rounds of ammunition, 16,000 plugs of gelignite, and SOOO detonators. In raids on Communists the police seized rifles, red flags, banners, and; several truckloads of books and documents. ■