CONSPIRACY AGAINST NORWAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17093, 27 August 1917, Page 2

CONSPIRACY AGAINST NORWAY

.*» GERMAN GUILT PROVED. INDIGNATION IN SCANDINAVIA. (Fbom Oub Own Corbespondent.) LONDON, June 29. Lost Saturday the, Christiania polico ma-do known tfae fact of an extensive organisation busied with bombs and explosives likely to bo used against Norwegian' ships. At the same time, they arrested Baron Rautenfels, just arrived from Germany, and seized his Luggage, which was in the nature of a small arsenal. The discovery aroused great indignation, and even the Swedish papers demand ah unconditional excuse from the German Government. Rautenfels has been examined by the Norwegian police, but he is an official courier of tho Kaiser, and will probably be handed over to Germany. It -was on June 2 that the Christumia police -warned the pob'ce authorities at all • Norwegian , ports of the existence of the conspiracy. On June 15 Rautenfels arrived, and was arrested at Christiania. , Of other arrests made, two were typists and one a tailor, besides a tvpist at Porsgrund, a small port about 60 or 70. miles south-west of Christiania. In the tailor's lodging, a room hired of a workman's family who -were temporarily absent, they found a complete bomb store stocked m f<Jur bier and three smaller trunks, besides a large heap of bombs and other explosives carelessly strewn, about a loft. The whole collection proved to consist of 211 bombs, of which 94 were large. 12 smaller and rectangular m shape, and IC4 smaller cylindrical bombs; there were also nine "bunker coal pieces," 269 detonators, 53 ''chewing-tobacco rolls," 32 "cigarettes," 31 "chalk pins," and 270 acid tubes, the total -weight being about one ton. It was also ascertained that the storing of explosives had begun as early as February, and that Rautenfels's trunks were despatched by the Foreign Office in Berlin, bore the address "German Legation. Christiairia," and were sealed with the Imperial seals. The German Legation was invited to send a representative to the police to attend ihe opening of the latest arrived trunk. No one appeared This! trunk contained 55 bombs. The opening of the trunk took place, notwithstanding the menacing protest of the German Minister. ■ One of the arrested persons confessed that the bombs were intended for American steamers leaving Norway, while the German version is that / the bombs were intended for revolutionary purposes in Finland. The one thing clear is that the German Government, through, its complicity in the transport of bombs and explosives via Sweden and Norway, has violated the neutrality of both countries. The Tidens Tegn (Norway) reports that on Wednesday a man was arrested while photographing a railway bridge. Immediately he was discovered he destroyed his photographing apparatus. He explained that he was a Russian estate owner, but it was found that he was unable to speak Russian. He then tried to speak English, and at- last got so excited that he broke into German, which he spoke fluently. He has been expelled from Norway; The Norwegian Shipping Gazette learns that a fire on board the Norwegian steamer Arras a few days ago was caused by an instrument obtained from a German explosive store._ The Morgenblad states that a German wireless station has been discovered at Hiscod Island, outside Arendal, on the Skager Rack. Throughout Norway, in the course of the last few daye, a great numbei of Germans have been arrested. Most of these havo been released, but a number have been expelled from the country. As soon as the great bomb plot was discovered two Stockholm newspapers, known for their pro-German sympathies, published a story to the effect that a Swedish mate named Wennerholm had placed explosives on board a British • steamer in Stockholm Harbour. They stated that Wennerholm the explosives from the Britieh Legation, and that the idea was to destroy a I British steamer so as to provoke public anger against Germany. Both the British end French Ministers at Stockholm made sharp protests against these insinuations. Socialdemqkraten (M. Brantinc's paper) says the explosives were undoubtedly German.