LONG SUSPECT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23994, 18 June 1941, Page 7

LONG SUSPECT

| GERMAN OFFICIALS disclosures of intrigue I PLOTS BY AXIS AGENTS (ionn.ni diplomatic and consular officials in the United States have lieen suspected so long of working mischief against the country's seeur ity and internal peace that the decision to close all consulates and their staffs can hardly be deemed surprising. Reloro America's entry into the last «iir the (ierman record of espionage and sabotage was of the blackest. Head ot the whole organisation was Franz von I 'a pen, military attache at the German Embassy an.] now Ambassador to I urkey, who was proved to have made the tidiest use of his diplomatic privileges to hamper American aid to tht> Allies by bomb plots and other means. Having been detected in an attempt to foment war between the I nited States and Mexico, lie was eventually expelled. While he was on his way back to Germany his papers were seized by the British authorities and the lull range of his activities was revealed.

Hitler's Aide as Consul Some years before the present, war I ' u> ' nited States Government was lorced to lake notice ot the GennanAiuorican Bund, a Nazi organisation intended to establish the power of the I bird Reich among American citizen* of (ierman birth or descent. This and other developments led j n "1037 to the

setting-up of a Congressional Committee on Un-American Activities, under the chairmanship of Mr. Martin Dies, which worked more or less in parallel with Mr. J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, The suspicion resting on German consular officials was deepened early in 10,39, when Captain Fritz Weidemann, Hitler's former aide-de-camp, was appointed Consul at San Francisco. In .July of last year Mr. Hoover's bureau was directed to make a nation-wide investigation of Fifth Column and subversive elements, and a little later the Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, announced that tho Government intended to make a broader inquiry into consular activities than tho bureau had so far undertaken. Large Consular Staffs The Inter-State Commission on Crime simultaneously reported suspicious increases in the staffs of German consulates and of some prominent German firms, in spite of the reduction in their legitimate business, ft declared that espionage, propaganda and sabotage were being developed by Germany into much more effective weapons than in the last war.

About this time Mr. Sumner Welles, Assistant-Secretary of State, announced the pending departure of Dr. Franz Reid. German Consul at New York, who had been transferred from Brazil after the Government of that country had suggested his removal on account of his undiplomatic activities. "Diplomats and consuls who are not found acceptable to other American Governments," said Mr. Welles, "are not acceptable to the United States." It was not until la-t November that a connected story of Nazi intrigue in the United States was told. The contents of a report by the Dies Committee became public on November 20, and the -500-page review of German economic, propagandist and espionage activities included a record of the work of German agents and their relations with the Embassy and consulates. Some of the individuals now asked to leave the United States, and Nazi organisations with which they were associated, were named in the report. Embassy Implicated

"The cloak of diplomatic immunity i hides determining information • which I might show that the Gorman Governi ment has been operating in this | country as a well-organised secret ! party, membership of which was under ! the control of officials of the German I Government, attached to the German ; Kinbassy and the German Consulates," i the report said. .Much of the report ! went to show that the 'l'ransocean News I Service, headed l>.v Dr. Manfred Zapp, j who was later arrested, was a cloaring- | house for propagandist work in North | and South America. I "It is shown that Zapp drew funds ! and took orders directly from, and collaborated closely with, Hans Thomson. Gorman Charge d'Aflairos at Washington." the report continued. Other sections dealt with the activities of the German Library of Information in New York, and the German Railroads In- ; formation Office. The report stated that Germany. | Italy, .Japan and Russia were working | together to delay defence preparations | and prevent more active aid to Britain. I Germany had planned reprisals if German consular agents' activities were disclosed, and the committee had therefore abandoned open-court hearings. JAPANESE GOODS EXCESSIVE BUYING SOUTH AFRICANS WARNED (Reed. 7.15 p.m.) JOHANNESBURG. June J7 In a speech, the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr. Richard Stnttaford, said: "We are buying excessively from Japan. The public should purchase all necessary imports from the ■ sterling area, thus giving the United ! Kingdom all the trade possible. If. may lie necessary to apply restrictions to discourage the demand for American dollars and yen."