THE CRIME-STAINED HUN.

Northern Advocate, 29 October 1917, Page 1

THE CRIME-STAINED HUN.

UNITED STATES DEFIED,

An insight into the methods of the German spies in the United States is given in a recently-published book,' "The German Spy in America," by Price Jones.

From the very first the German threw down a challenge, not only to American humanitarianism, but also to American sovereignty, and he was clever enough to induce some sections of the American press—notably the Hearst press —to make excuses for him. Subsequent events have shown that the voice of that, press was not the real voice of America. Even at the time it had an unnatural ring, and it is refreshing to read the convincing statement from the pen of Mr Wood, formerly United States Assistant Attorney in New York: —

'/Murder followed murder of the high seas. One crime came out upon another in the United States, and now we are told that this Government must do as the Imperial German Government directs, or murder on a more colossal scale will be the result. The people of the United States have not taken orders from any Government since 1776, and the German murderers ought to have known we would take none now, least of all from a Government that had forfeited its right to the respect of any civilised nations."

Mr Price Jones takes up the tale and endeavours to give what he modestly calls "some faint conception of what the Germans in the United States have been doing since August 1, 1914." He was qualified to do so as a reporter on the New York "Sun," who devoted a year to no other work, and his story is the more deadly because it is supported throughout by documentary evidence, and is told in plain, straightforward language, little embellished by rhetoric. Some of the German activities in the United States were no doubt legitimate. Just as the enterprising burglar is not always burgling nor the cut-throat always occupied with crime, so the German Secret Service has sometimes, in its leisure, tried to promote the interests of the Fatherland by methods generally recognised as permissible. It may be, too, that tho line which separates the legitimate from the illegitimate in this delicate province .of patriotism is sometimes difficult to draw. But there is no difficulty whatever in drawing it in the case of the vast majority of German schemes, for these have proceeded in an ascending scale of unscrupulousness.

All these offences are described by Mr Price Jones in convincing detail with cumulative effect. He begins with Franz yon Papen—he whose contemptuous allusion to "these idiotic Yankees" possibly did more than many of the actual crimes to arouse the wrath of the unreflecting. He gives an admirably full account of this man's passport forgeries, and of his plans to invade Canada, destroy the Welland Canal, and place fire bombs in the holds of ships clearing from American harbours. Another chapter is devoted to Captain Boy-Ed, whose special tasks were to smuggle American supplies to German raiders and provoke war between America and Mexico in the hope that America would then have no munitions to spare for export to the Allies. Wolf yon Igel, the custodian of yon Papen's secret documents, and Paul Koenig, of the Hamburg-Ameri-ka line, the king of German spies, divide a chapter between them; but the most thrilling pages are those which relates the exploits of Franz yon l?e----ventlow, millionaire and director of the Deutsche Bank —"so important that when made a prisoner in England the Kaiser offered to exchange for the nobleman any ten British prisoners that King George might select."

This criminal got to New York with forged passport in January, 1915, with £20,000,000 to spend on the corruption of the Republic. He set to work to buy up munition factories ,or as an alternative to blow them up or subsidise strikes of munition workers, in order to provoke such trouble as would keep America busy in Mexico, he successfully bribed Huerta, Villa, Carranza and Zapata, and contrived to start two other small revolutions in the country. He offered Mr Gompers £100,000 if he would inaugurate such a campaign of peace propagandism as would impede the shipping of American supplies to France and England, while at the same time he chartered ships, caused false manifescts to be made for the cargoes, and despatched them to neutral ports, boasting, "The British blockade is a myth. I can send to Germany all the goods that I wish.'' It is likely enough that he did manage to get some goods to Germany, but when he tried to get himself there he failed. The Noordam, in which he sailed, was stopped, and he had to break his journey at Donnington Hall, where possibly he is still breaking it. In the meantime the American police and judicial authorities were investigating his record, with the result that "should he ever step upon American shores he will face charges which, upon conviction, furnish a total sentence of anywhere from fifty to sixty years." As things are now going there seems to be no particular reason why ho

should not be sent to America to face these charges. The record is a pretty one for a director of the Deutsche Bank and a particular friend of William IT. .