GERMAN SECRETS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 2 May 1922, Page 8

GERMAN SECRETS.

SECURED BY JAPAN

IMPORTANT WAR PROCESSES.

German military and navalseerets of much importance have come into the hands of Japanese Government agents, according to information which has reached authoritative circles in Berlin. Among these are processes for the manufacture of star shells, the formula for a contact fuse which the Germans used advantageously for range-finding when time-exploding fuses were . unsatisfactory, and "certain submarine plans and naval secrets which have been betrayed, to the detriment of the German Empire." For the theft of these submarine plans and other secrets,; which took place Beveral months ago in Kiel, at least seven Germans have been tried for high treason secretly before the Leipsig Court, and four of them received sentences of from seven months to one and a half years' imprisonment. Four of the convicted men were former German officers; the others were employees of a well-known German manufacturing firm which filled huge war orders. .

The trials held last December gave no indication that the Japanese Government was concerned, but reports in the hands of responsible diplomatic officials in Berlin say: "The defendants attempted with some success to dispose of their information to the Japanese Embassy m Berlin." It was added that for the good of the German Empire it was necessary that the trials should be secret.-" : Complaint is heard in German industrial quarters that with the secrets already in the hands of the Japanese through the seizure of many German patents during the war the Germans are greatly handicapped commercially. Warning to the Japanese that they must have "care for German rights" has been issued from what is described as "an important high industrial circle." According to a Berlin message to an American paper, the Japanese Govern-

ment, which during the war confiscated 1000 German patents, has decided to return 500 of them to the Germans and sell the other 500 to Japanese concerns, .according to a communication from "important industrial circles," published in the Tagliche Rundschau and the Boersen Zeitung. Complaint is made that the Japanese attitude is without precedent, and is arousing illfeeling and hampering the re-establish-ment of desirable commercial relations. It is charged further that the Japanese are keeping more important secrets, which has caused great damage to German manufacturers. It is reported that 2000 Japanese in Berlin in official and unofficial capacities, or as students, have been buying "everything that is for sale." An American official has ! declared that the Japanese had the advantage here over other Government representatives, in that they could close a deal promptly^ at Berlin without referring to their home Government.