SPYING CHARGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22974, 28 February 1938, Page 11

SPYING CHARGES

ARRESTS IN AMERICA ATTRACTIVE GERMAN WOMAN TWO MEN FROM ARMY By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received February 27, 6.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON. Feb. 26 The director of the Division of Investigation, Department of Justice, Mr. Edgar Hoover, announced that three persons—an attractive German woman and two men —have been arrested in connection with a gigantic plot to sell American military secrets to a European country. Mr. Hoover said two confessions had already been obtained. The trio will be charged with espionage. Those arrested are:— Guenther Rum rich, aged 27, formerly a sergeant in the United States Army, who deserted in 1935. He was born in the United States but educated in Germany, where lie spent most of his life. Erich Glaser, aged 28, a private at the air defence post at Mitchell Field, New York. He was born in Germany. Johanna Hoffman, aged 26, of Dresden, a hairdresser on the liner Europa. They wore apprehended when they attempted to obtain 50 passport applications, ostensibly to enable spies to enter Russia under the comparative safety of falsified American passports. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation the arrests are considered to bo of the greatest importance. Many others are expected to follow.

TRIAL AT METZ LONG SENTENCES IMPOSED FEW DETAILS DISCLOSED METZ. Feb. 25 All important espionage trial has been concluded at Metz. Xo details are available except the names of the accused, and the sentences passed on them. A German, Baron Rudolph von Puchen, aged 63, an ex-colonel in the Austrian Army, and Theodore Albrecht, aged 65, were each sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment; Dr. Walter Hartmann, aged 38, a correspondent for a Viennese newspaper in Paris, was sentenced to 12 years; and Henri Nolte, aged 27, an ex-sergeant in the Foreign Legion, to five years. Hans Lorentz, alleged to have been the head of the spying organisation, was sentenced in his absence to a 20 years' term.