GERMAN INFAMY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14448, 7 November 1917, Page 4

GERMAN INFAMY.

CULTURES OF ANTHRAX AND GLAND__"RS. '

WASHINGTON, September 24. •-' How Germany .7 "shamefully .abused and exploited" the protection' of the United States by secreting m the German legation at Bucharest, after the American Government had taken charge of .Germany's affairs at the Rumanian capital^ quantities , of powerful explosives for,' bomb plots and deadly, microbes, -with instructions for theii*. j use m t de,^ l^roying horses and cattle, was revealed to^day by' Secretary, of. .State Lanaing. The latest\.story is told m a communica*t;on.tp the State Department by William Whiting Andrews, Secretary of the Legation at Bucharest; •' and a letter from Foreign Minister Porumbau of Rumania.

r , Parcels and. boxes taken into the German Consulate at Bucharest with display of, "great precaution aroused the ,susSicions of. the Rumanian Government. >n s August 27, 19.16, the evening prior to the date of Rumania's decalaratibn of war, some of the, cases were taken to the German Legation, .located m .'a different building from the Consulate. Convinced, that the boxes were not taken away.from^th^Jegatjon ...by. ..the German diplomatic m-issioii on its departure from Bucharest,.. , .th^.Run^ijian authorities ordered the police to examine their contents. Tlie police communicated with American, .^nister . Vopicka,, . then iii charge ofyGermanyJs.interests, who reluctantly assignedLSecretasy 'Andrews, to observe the. search. The. boxes, were found buried' hi the garden of. the German legation.

:•_' Mr Andrews' report says: "Upon my return from,, the , examination, which,-, resulted m the discovery of 'the explosives and the box of microbes,, both of which the} legation servants , admitted-, having placed A m, the garden,., the former confidential -agent of the. .German. -Minister* Dr. Bernhardt, who baii'fceen- rlef*. .with the legation at the German Minister's request, to assist iim. the -care* of German interests, admitted f hi^ knowJe,<_ge of the explosives. placed m thg'JaV^e.h,. .tele" me that more "were, m ,tlie garden, tlian^had beeeir fdmid ; r th^at a etjl^ larger quaiiti*ty, had be,eh -,hur^e4, ihVthft,yhpusß pf . „th<? legation, and that still ; worse things.' tjtiaji Imp box 6f;. : nii,Q*^be{3 werfe. contained ,^h fch'g legation, and' irisiriuated that they Would be found even m the cabinets of "Dossieri, which'' lt had 'sealed. '.-•'•. '7 tvVDr. Beriihardt>state4, that.. all these Bbtecte, had .been ,toriho German lega^pn. .after/pur .legation ; -lja^.^ccep-ted the prpteptjpn of iGerWi}j4ntereßts,i which agreed with;^6 ,.sta,^erneii|> of the n! sorvants. A.i.siin^lav, . 'confession was- n^ade to tlie Mjih&eß by. tl}is, ; maii. v The pro* tettiqiTL. qf, tli^ajnited-, States, ,was -m this maniier. shamefully Vabused and, exploited. Ih this .m^fence atJpast : the GovernmentvW "ot have recourse to its system of denial."

• • Fi,f f.y-qne "boxes were taken from the ground m, the garden* ' Fifty , of them contained each a cartridge filled with trinitrotoluene, saturated with mononitrotouelen, among the most powerful explosives known, one-fifth of each one

being, sufficient to . tear up a railroad track. In the other boxes were bottles of liquid found to be cultivations of the microbes of anthrax and , glanders, ,It bore a seal showing it came from the German consulate, at Kronstadt, and inside was found a typewritten note m German saying: "Enclosed four phials for horses and four , for cattle, to be employed as formerly arranged. Each phial is sufficient for 200 head. To be introduced, if possible directly into the animals' throats, if not, into their fodder. Please make -a little report on the success obtained . there j m case of "good results, the presence of Mr Kostoff for one day here' would be. desirable'" Foreign Minister Porumbaru, accompanied his letter with documents to prove the origin of the boxes arid their contents.

"It has heen possible to prove m an undisputable way," he said, "that before our declaration of war to AustriaHungary, when observing strict neutrality and keeping up normal relations with the German Empire, the personnel of the German legation, violating all rules of neutrality and all duties of diplomatic missions, introduced clandestmely considerable quantities of an- exA tremely powerful explosive and cultivations of microbes 7 destined to infect domestic animals, and m consequence susceptible of provoking terrible epidemics also among the human population.' _ "There* can hardly be any doubji, about the way by .which . these substances were introduced into Rumanian. .territory, the -very .stringent police measures at all frontier .stations taken by the Royal Rumanian Government since the outbreak .of tho war, continually made stricter sin,ce,,: prove sufhciejatly that these explosives and microbes cannot have reached this country otherwise than by. diplomatic;, cou*deiy .7 , • ' "On the; other liand, there can be no doubt the. final object of the importation into Rumania, as well as about tlie use to which, they v .were assigned.- The. ex^ plosiyeg and^thfriJDciicrp.bes were destined to be used ;in :: Rumania, very: probably m time of peace. From all this it, i'esults /that m, time of peace -members of /-he Gemnan/ Legation, .covered byV their Wmumty, prepared, m concert with the Bulgarian; Legation, the perpetration on the territory, of , a neutral, .'and iriendly State.of plots directed 'against the .safety bf this State and against, the lives- of its ' subjects. ,7, : , v ...A. V , .- "The Royal Government makes it , its duty to . protest, against' these criminal" practices, and especially against the use of the .microbes, an illegal weapon and certainly worse tha-n poison, the use of which was,. formally- forbidden by, .the fourth convention of .The "Hague, as -well as this violationi-of the duties and of.., the loyalty ; -\yhich international law imposes upion. diplqmatic missions, as an 'exchange for tjhe privileges which are guaranteed to thera." r ..u.;.(rr.