GERMAN INTRIGUES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11507, 1 October 1915, Page 6

GERMAN INTRIGUES.

, I ~—► . j STARTLING AMERICAN REVE- - LATfONS. PLOTTING THE LUSSTANIA • CU/RAGE. I A lor-' wo.eks a-g ; > tho " 'Provident* Journal" startled ihe United State Willi its revelations of German mar cliiiial.ioiis in that enuntry. An outlino oi these d isdosums was cabled ai the time.. American papers by thi; week's mail give them in full and inter. c..ting detail. Tho Govcrniriont, said the Journal, ' had come uno possession of w bag of documents belonging to a German secret sorvieo agent-. " The Gorman Embassy discovered tho loss oi this bag of documents only yesterday, and Count vion I'l'.i'ii-si.orll wdi not know nnr.il lie reads this statement , that this entire mass of material is it: . the hands of the United States Government." J It was asserted that in eonwpienet tho Government could prove the following facts~ J That the passport frauds iu Nen York and elsewhere had lx-.cn trace< ' directly to the personal activities o> ' Captain Jvarl Boy-Ed. the Naval At- ' tache of tho German Embassy. ' That a list of names of German reservist officers in America who won to he returned to Europe on forgot passports was in the hands of tin: Government; that this list was securer directly from a German Government official, and that tho list was headec w.th tho name of Captain Horn, th< man who attempted to blow up th+ Vance hero bridge on the Canadian bor der with dynaiu-te. That this same Captain Horn tac made and signed a confession to the Government that what lie did he wat ordered to do by his superior officei connected with the German Govern nient in this country, and that the Government had facts in its poisesS'.oi: that tho .superior officer, whose name was not ment oned in Horn's concession, was Captain von I'apen, the Military Attache to the German Jiiftba^sy. FOMENTING STRIKES. That Captain Koenig, Chief Disbursing Agent and head of the secret service of the Hamburg-American line in New York, had been the disbursing agent of the German Embassy in the payment of most of its obligations that liavo been incurred in fomenting labour strikes, buying of newspapers, opening up of news bureaux anel all the other thousand and one activities by which it has attempted to change public, sentiment in th;s country in favour of the German cause. That an American capitalist, whr has a summer home in the Adirondaeks, where Count von Berastorff resides during most of the summer months, and who is von Bernstont's closest per 6ona! associate, made an order of 10,000,000d0l to the president of _ a cartridge company to purchase that institution, and in making this offer he was unquestionably the agent of Count von Bernatorff himself, who wished' to close the concern. That a fund of 1,30Q.000d0l was got together through German interests associated directly with the German Embassy, to finance a national strike of longshoremen on the Atlantic, Pacific anef Gulf Coasts, and on (Treat Lakes, with tho idea of crippling the ammunition freight businesss. That a former agent of Krupp's in this country, tho husband of a wellknown prima donna, with an office in Lower Broadway, was in constant touch with tho German Embassy and Captain Boy-Ed, and had* personally directed ; every attempt that had been made to introduce into manufacturing plants chemists, metal mixers and engineers generally for the purpose of destroying or making valueless war materials being made for the Allies. BOMBS ON VESSELS. That ships being loaded alongside the Hobokeu docks for passage to Europe with cargoes fo r the A Hie? are in grave danger at the bands of German sailors; that this had resulted in the placing of many bombs aboard these vessels; that many of these bombs had been discovered, about which nothing has been made public, and that in many cases where these German sailors manned the decks of their own vessels, as the freight boats left Europe, they had yellea 111 d'erisson their prophecy that such ships would never reach the other side, and such ships had almost invariably been found to contain explosive material, alarm clock bombs or other implements of destruction. That Captain von Prieger, head or the entire Secret Service of Germany (the man who visited England in company with tho Kaiser three years ago, in the uniform of one of his general' officers, but who really went there for 1 the purpose of interviewing all the heads of the spy service in the United Kingdom), came to the United Stated in the soring of the present yea», -*icd remained for a month, during which, time he reorganised the whole spy sys-

tem in America. LUSITANIA I\CTJR DERMIS IN AMERICA. That the false affidavits concerning the existence of guns for purposes of defence or attack on board the Lusitauia, were conoocted deliberately through the efforts of Captain von Papen and Captain Boy-Ed, and the fa-cts in possession of the Government prove beyond any question that theso two representatives of the German Government in America deliberately procured these affidavits either for a financial consideration or by throats. u That certain officers of the German Government in this country cam ha held and tried on a charge of murder for having acted as accessories before the fact in the sinking of the Lusitania, and that the investigations nowproceeding show that before the Lumtania was sunk specific directions and instructions as to her position and! route reached the German Admiralty." In connection with this last statement, the ''Journal" states that the Government has gone so far as to obtain the advice of eminent counsel in New York as to whether such an act. would constitute piracy or murder, and in every case Ita> received the assurance that, the charge must be that of murder in the iirst degree. The immense amount of evidence in possession of the Government with regard to these efforts, the "Journal" asserts, with regard to attempts to { bribo Labour leaders, to compel the j Government to act. in a fraudulent plot prepared against- the British war vessels outside of New York Harbour, e> create a conspiracy among banking institutions in the control of Germans or German-Americans, to poison horses and mules at New Orleans, to involve the Cnif.c.d States and Mexico, to stir up strikes and sedition by forming ai!r<red " praco associations " and " neutrality leagues," and to embarrass the Administration, have all combined to -rente a condition under which the Government feels it can remain silent no longer'. j