NEW YORK SPY HUNT

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 November 1939, Page 12

NEW YORK SPY HUNT

ROUND UP OF NAZI AGENTS.

NEW YORK, .September 22.

A hundred Federal detectives in the New York area have been actively .for foreign spies during the past few weeks, and have attempted to forestall possible attempts at sabotage.

The British and French Intelligence services are said to have supplied much valuable information about the activities of German agents. It is said that the Italian Lines’ refusal to carry German passengers when the liner Rex sailed on Tuesday was the result of a hint that several members of the German spy ring hoped to reach Europe in that vessel and would be taken into custody at Gibraltar. The Italian authorities naturally wished to avoid any incident. One of the key figures of the ring, according to information published today, is believed to be a woman doctor living at Yorkville, a part of New York largely inhabited by Germans. She is suspected of having succeeded Dr. Ignatz Griebl, who fled to Germany last year on the eve of the spy trial which resulted in verdicts against four prisoners.

Witnesses and suspected persons are now being questioned in considerable numbers at Governors’ Island, New York Harbour and in offices equipped with a recording apparatus on the 30th floor of the Federal Building, New York. The greatest secrecy is being observed. It is claimed, however, that a number of amateur wireless stations, powerful enough to communicate with Europe, have already been discovered in out-of-the-way pjaces. The Federal investigators are receiving useful help from German refugees. According to a report from Mexico City, the Mexican authorities are trying to trace a clandestine radio station which has been sending code messages to Europe ever since the war started.