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diff --git a/22682-8.txt b/22682-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..35bfa4e --- /dev/null +++ b/22682-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5681 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Secret Armies, by John L. Spivak + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Secret Armies + The New Technique of Nazi Warfare + +Author: John L. Spivak + +Release Date: September 20, 2007 [EBook #22682] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SECRET ARMIES *** + + + + +Produced by Jeannie Howse, David Clarke and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | + | been preserved. | + | | + | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | + | a complete list, please see the end of this document. | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | The Book and the Author | + | | + | John L. Spivak comes closer to the popular conception of the | + | ace journalist than any other living writer. Combining the | + | instinct of a detective with the resourcefulness of a | + | reporter, and gifted with a hard-hitting, breezy style, he | + | has time and again "scooped the world," "gotten the | + | story"--despite powerful opposition and personal danger that | + | might well have daunted less hardy souls. | + | | + | But there is an important difference that sets Spivak apart | + | from most other gentlemen of the press. For several years he | + | has devoted his bright and sharp pen solely to uncovering | + | evidence of fascist activities in the United | + | States--evidence that is credited with having set off | + | several official investigations exposing un-American, | + | foreign-dominated propaganda. | + | | + | SECRET ARMIES climaxes Spivak's exposures. His sensational | + | inside story of Hitler's far-flung, under-cover poison | + | campaign in the Americas would seem scarcely credible, were | + | it not so thoroughly documented with original letters and | + | records, citing chapter and verse, naming names, dates and | + | places. His unanswerable, uncontradicted facts should go far | + | toward jolting many of us out of our false sense of | + | security. | + | | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + +_Books by John L. Spivak_ + + THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE + + GEORGIA NIGGER + + AMERICA FACES THE BARRICADES + + EUROPE UNDER THE TERROR + + + + +SECRET ARMIES + +_The New Technique of Nazi Warfare_ + +[Illustration] + +JOHN L. SPIVAK + + + +MODERN AGE BOOKS, INC. +432 FOURTH AVENUE NEW YORK + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1939 BY JOHN L. SPIVAK +PUBLISHED BY MODERN AGE BOOKS, INC. +432 Fourth Avenue +New York City + + + _All rights in this book are reserved, and it may not be + reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from + the holder of these rights. For information address the + publishers._ + + +_First Printing, February 1939_ +_Second Printing, March 1939_ + + +_Printed in the United States of America_ + + + + +_CONTENTS_ + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + Preface 7 + + I Czechoslovakia--Before the Carving 9 + + II England's Cliveden Set 17 + + III France's Secret Fascist Army 31 + + IV Dynamite Under Mexico 43 + + V Surrounding the Panama Canal 56 + + VI Secret Agents Arrive in America 73 + + VII Nazi Spies and American "Patriots" 84 + +VIII Henry Ford and Secret Nazi Activities 102 + + IX Nazi Agents in American Universities 118 + + X Underground Armies in America 130 + + XI The Dies Committee Suppresses Evidence 137 + + XII Conclusion 155 + + + + +_ILLUSTRATIONS_ + + + PAGE + +Application in the Secret Order of '76 by Sidney Brooks 77 + +Letter from Harry A. Jung 82 + +Anti-Semitic handbill 85 + +Letter from Peter V. Armstrong 89 + +Letter to Peter V. Armstrong 90 + +Account card of Reverend Gerald B. Winrod 104 + +Sample of "Capitol News & Feature Service" 106 + +Letter from _Wessington Springs Independent_ 107 + +Letter from General Rodriguez 111 + +Letter from General Rodriguez 113 + +Letter from Henry Allen 115 + +Anti-Semitic sticker and German titlepage of book by + Henry Ford 117 + +Letter from Olov E. Tietzow 125 + +Judgment showing conviction of E.F. Sullivan 138-139 + +Letter from Carl G. Orgell 151 + +Letter from G. Moshack 153 + +Letter from E.A. Vennekohl 154 + + + + +_Preface_ + + +The material in this small volume just barely scratches the surface of +a problem which is becoming increasingly grave: the activities of Nazi +agents in the United States, Mexico, and Central America. During the +past five years I have observed some of them, watching the original, +crudely organized and directed propaganda machine develop, grow and +leave an influence far wider than most people seem to realize. What at +first appeared to be merely a distasteful attempt by Nazi Government +officials at direct interference in the affairs of the American people +and their Government, has now assumed the more sinister aspect of also +seeking American naval and military secrets. + +Further studies in Central America, Mexico and the Panama Canal Zone +disclosed an espionage network directed by the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis +and operating against the peace and security of the United States. A +scrutiny of the Nazi Fifth Column[1] in a few European countries, +especially in Czechoslovakia just before that Republic was turned over +to Germany's mercy by the Munich "peace" and in France where Nazi and +Italian agents built an amazing secret underground army, has made the +fascist activities in the Western Hemisphere somewhat clearer to me. + +I have included one chapter detailing events which cannot, so far as I +have been able to discover, be traced directly to Nazi espionage; but +it shows the influence of Nazi ideology upon England's now notorious +"Cliveden set," which maneuvered the betrayal of Austria, sacrificed +Czechoslovakia and is working in devious ways to strengthen Hitler in +Europe. The "Cliveden set" has already had so profound an effect upon +the growth and influence of fascism throughout the world, that I +thought it advisable to include it. + +The sources for most of the material, by its very nature, naturally +cannot be revealed. Those conversations which I quote directly came +from people who were present when they occurred or, as in the case of +the Cagoulards in France, from official records. In the chapter on +Czechoslovakia I quote a conversation between a Nazi spy and his +chief. The details came to me from a source which in the past I had +found accurate. Subsequently, the spy was arrested by Czech secret +police, and his confession substantiated the conversation as I have +given it. + +Much of the material in this volume has been published in various +periodicals from time to time, but so many Americans feel that concern +over Nazi penetration in this country is exaggerated, that I hope even +this brief and incomplete picture will serve to impress the reader, as +it has impressed me, with the gravity of the situation. + + J.L.S. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] When the Spanish Insurgents were investing Madrid early in November, +1936, newspaper correspondents asked Insurgent General Emilio Mola which +of his four columns would take the city. Mola replied enigmatically: +"The Fifth Column." He referred to the fascist sympathizers within +Madrid--those attempting to abet the defeat of the Spanish Government by +means of spying, sabotage and terrorism. The term "Fifth Column" is +today widely used to describe the various fascist and Nazi organizations +operating within the borders of non-fascist nations. + + + + +I + +_Czechoslovakia--Before The Carving_ + + +It is pretty generally admitted now that the Munich "peace" gave +Germany industrial and military areas essential to further +aggressions. Instead of helping to put a troubled Europe on the road +to lasting peace, Munich strengthened the totalitarian powers, +especially Germany, and a strengthened Germany inevitably means +increased activities of the Nazis' Fifth Column which is, in all +quarters of the globe, actively preparing the ground for Hitler's +greater plans. + +If we can divine the future by the past, the Fifth Column, that +shadowy group of secret agents now entrenched in every important +country throughout the world, is an omen of what is to come. Before +Germany marched into Austria, that unhappy country witnessed a large +influx of Fifth Column members. In Czechoslovakia, especially in those +months before the Republic's heart was handed to Hitler on a platter, +there was a tremendous increase in the numbers and activities of +agents sent into the Central European country. + +During my stay there in the brief period immediately preceding the +"peace," I learned a little about the operations of the Gestapo's +secret agents in Czechoslovakia. Their numbers are vast and those few +of whom I learned, are infinitesimal to the actual numbers at work +then and now, not only in Czechoslovakia but in other countries. What +I learned of those few, however, shows how the Gestapo, the Nazi +secret service, operates in its ruthless drive. + +For years Hitler had laid plans to fight, if he had to, for +Czechoslovakia, whose natural mountain barriers and man-made defensive +line of steel and concrete stood in the way of his announced drive to +the Ukrainian wheat fields. In preparation for the day when he might +have to fight for its control, he sent into the Republic a host of +spies, provocateurs, propagandists and saboteurs to establish +themselves, make contacts, carry on propaganda and build a machine +which would be invaluable in time of war. + +In a few instances I learned the details of the Nazis' inexorable +determination and their inhuman indifference to the lives of even +their own agents. + + +Arno Oertel, _alias_ Harald Half, was a thin, white-faced spy trained +in two Gestapo schools for Fifth Column work. Oertel was given a +German passport by Richter, the Gestapo district chief at +Bischofswerda on what was then the Czechoslovak-German frontier. + +"You will proceed to Prague," Richter instructed him, "and lose +yourself in the city. As soon as it is safe, go to Langenau near +Boehmisch-Leipa and report to Frau Anna Suchy.[2] She will give you +further instructions." + +Oertel nodded. It was his first important espionage job--assigned to +him after the twenty-five-year-old secret agent had finished his +intensive course in the special Gestapo training school in Zossen +(Brandenburg), one of the many schools established by the Nazi secret +service to train agents for various activities. + +After his graduation Oertel had been given minor practical training +in politically disruptive work in anti-fascist organizations across +the Czech border where he had posed as a German emigré. There he had +shown such aptitude that his Gestapo chief at sector headquarters in +Dresden, Herr Geissler, sent him to Czechoslovakia on a special +mission. + +Oertel hesitated. "Naturally I'll take all possible precautions +but--accidents may happen." + +Richter nodded. "If you are caught and arrested, demand to see the +German Consul immediately," he said. "If you are in a bad predicament, +we'll request your extradition on a criminal charge--burglary with +arms, attempted murder--some non-political crime. We've got a treaty +with Czechoslovakia to extradite Germans accused of criminal acts +but--" The Gestapo chief opened the top drawer of his desk and took a +small capsule from a box. "If you find yourself in an utterly hopeless +situation, swallow this." + +He handed the pellet to the nervous young man. + +"Cyanide," Richter said. "Tie it up in a knot in your handkerchief. It +will not be taken from you if you are arrested. There is always an +opportunity while being searched to take it." + +Oertel tied the pellet in a corner of his handkerchief and placed it +in his breast pocket. + +"You are to make two reports," Richter continued. "One for Frau Suchy, +the other for the contact in Prague. She'll get you in touch with +him." + +Anna Suchy, when Oertel reported to her, gave him specific orders: "On +August 16 [1937], at five o'clock in the afternoon, you will sit on a +bench near the fountain in Karlsplatz in Prague. A man dressed in a +gray suit, gray hat, with a blue handkerchief showing from the breast +pocket of his coat, will ask you for a light for his cigarette. Give +him the light and accept a cigarette from the gentleman. He will give +you detailed instructions on what to do and how to meet the Prague +contact to whom in turn you will report." + +At the appointed hour Oertel sat on a bench staring at the fountain, +watching men and women strolling and chatting cheerfully on the way to +meet friends for late afternoon coffee. Occasionally he looked at the +afternoon papers lying on the bench beside him. He felt that he was +being watched but he saw no one in a gray suit with a blue +handkerchief. He wiped his forehead with his handkerchief, partly +because of the heat, partly because of nervousness. As he held the +handkerchief he could feel the tightly bound capsule. + +Precisely at five he noticed a man in a gray suit with a gray hat and +a blue handkerchief in the breast pocket of his coat, strolling toward +him. As the man approached he took out a package of cigarettes, +selected one and searched his pockets for a light. Stopping before +Oertel, he doffed his hat and smilingly asked for a light. Oertel +produced his lighter and the other in turn offered him a cigarette. He +sat down on the bench. + +"Report once a week," he said abruptly, puffing at his cigarette and +staring at two children playing in the sunshine which flooded +Karlsplatz. He stretched his feet like a man relaxing after a hard +day's work. "Deliver reports to Frau Suchy personally. One week she +will come to Prague, the next you go to her. Deliver a copy of your +report to the English missionary, Vicar Robert Smith, who lives at 31 +Karlsplatz." + +Smith, to whom the unidentified man in the gray suit told Oertel to +report, was a minister of the Church of Scotland in Prague, a British +subject with influential connections not only with English-speaking +people but with Czech government officials.[3] Besides his ministerial +work, the Reverend Smith led an amateur orchestra group giving free +concerts for German emigrés. On his clerical recommendation, he got +German "emigré" women into England as house servants for British +government officials and army officers. + + +The far-flung Gestapo network in Czechoslovakia concentrated much of +its activities along the former German-Czech border. In Prague, even +today when Germany has achieved what she said was all she wanted in +Europe, the network reaches into all branches of the Government, the +military forces and emigré anti-fascist groups. The country, before it +was cut to pieces and even now, is honeycombed with Gestapo agents +sent from Germany with false passports or smuggled across the border. + +Often the Gestapo uses Czech citizens whose relatives are in Germany +and upon whom pressure is put. The work of these agents consists not +only of ferreting out military information regarding Czech defense +measures and establishing contacts with Czech citizens for permanent +espionage, but of the equally important assignment of disrupting +anti-fascist groups--of creating opposition within organizations +having large memberships in order to split and disintegrate them. +Agents also make reports on public opinion and attitudes, and record +carefully the names and addresses of those engaged in anti-fascist +work. A similar procedure was followed in Austria before that country +was invaded, and it enabled the Nazis to make wholesale arrests +immediately upon entering the country. + +Prague, with a German population of sixty thousand is still the +headquarters for the astonishing espionage and propaganda machine +which the Gestapo built throughout the country. Before Czechoslovakia +was cut up, most of the espionage reports crossed the frontier into +Germany through Tetschen-Bodenbach. The propaganda and espionage +center of the Henlein group was in the headquarters of the _Sudeten +Deutsche Partei_ at 4 Hybernska St. A secondary headquarters, in the +_Deutscher Hilfsverein_ at 7 Nekazanka St., was directed by Emil +Wallner, who was ostensibly representing the Leipzig Fair but was +actually the chief of the Gestapo machine in Prague. His assistant, +Hermann Dorn, living in Hanspaulka-Dejvice, masqueraded as the +representative of the _Muenchner Illustrierte Zeitung_. + +Some aspects of the Nazi espionage and propaganda machine in +Czechoslovakia hold especial interest for American immigration +authorities since into the United States, too, comes a steady flow of +the shadowy members of the Nazis' Fifth Column. It is well to know +that the letters and numbers at the top of passports inform German +diplomatic representatives the world over that the bearer usually is a +Gestapo agent. Whenever American immigration authorities find German +passports with letters and numbers at the top, they may be reasonably +sure that the bearer is an agent. These numbers are placed on +passports by Gestapo headquarters in Berlin or Dresden. The agent's +photograph and a sample of his (or her) handwriting is sent via the +diplomatic pouch to the Nazi Embassy, Legation, Consulate or German +Bund in the country or city to which the agent is assigned. When the +agent reports in a foreign city, the resident Gestapo chief, in order +to identify him, checks the passport's top number with the picture and +the handwriting received by diplomatic pouch. + + +Rudolf Walter Voigt, _alias_ Walter Clas, _alias_ Heinz Leonhard, +_alias_ Herbert Frank--names which he used throughout Europe in his +espionage work will serve as an illustration. Voigt was sent to Prague +on a delicate mission. His job was to discover how Czechs got to Spain +to fight in the International Brigade, a mystery in Berlin since such +Czechs had to cross Italy, Germany or other fascist countries which +cooperate with the Gestapo. + +Voigt was given passport No. 1,128,236 made out in the name of Walter +Clas, and bearing at the top of the passport the letters and numbers +1A1444. He was instructed, by Leader Wilhelm May of Dresden, to report +to the Henlein Party headquarters upon his arrival in Prague. Clas, +_alias_ Voigt, arrived October 23, 1937, reported at the Sudeten Party +headquarters and saw a man whom I was unable to identify. He was +instructed to report again four days later, since information about +the agent had not yet arrived. + +Voigt was trained in the Gestapo espionage schools in Potsdam and +Calmuth-Remagen. He operates directly under Wilhelm May whose +headquarters are in Dresden. May is in charge of Gestapo work over +Sector No. 2. Preceding the granting to Hitler of the Sudeten areas in +Czechoslovakia, the entire Czech border espionage and terrorist +activity was divided into sectors. At this writing the same sector +divisions still exist, operating now across the new frontiers. Sector +No. 1 embraces Silesia with headquarters at Breslau; No. 2, Saxony, +with headquarters at Dresden; and No. 3, Bavaria, with headquarters at +Munich. After the annexation of Austria, Sector No. 4 was added, +commanded by Gestapo Chief Scheffler whose headquarters are in Berlin +with a branch in Vienna. Sector No. 4 also directs _Standarte II_ +which stands ready to provide incidents to justify German invasion +"because the situation has got out of control of the local +authorities." + +Another way in which immigration authorities, especially in countries +surrounding Germany, can detect Gestapo agents is by the position of +stamps on the German passport. Stamps are placed, in accordance with +German law, directly under the spot provided for them on the passport +on the front page, upper right hand corner. Whenever the stamps are on +the cover facing the passport title page, it is a sign to Gestapo +representatives and Consulates that the bearer is an agent who crossed +the border hurriedly without time to get the regular numbers and +letters from Gestapo headquarters. The agent is given this means of +temporary identification by the border Gestapo chief. + +Also, whenever immigration authorities find a German passport issued +to the bearer for less than five years and then extended to the +regulation five-year period, they may be certain that the bearer is a +new Gestapo agent who is being tested by controlled movements in a +foreign country. For his first Gestapo mission in Holland, for +instance, Voigt was given a passport August 15, 1936, good for only +fourteen days. His chief was not sure whether or not Voigt had agreed +to become an agent just to get a passport and money to escape the +country; so his passport period was limited. + +When the fourteen-day period expired, Voigt would have to report to +the Nazi Consulate for a renewal. In this particular instance, the +passport was marked "Non-renewable Except by Special Permission of the +Chief of Dresden Police." When Voigt performed his Holland mission +successfully, he was given the usual five-year passport. + + +Any German whose passport shows a given limited time, which has been +subsequently extended, gives proof that he has been tested and found +satisfactory by the Gestapo. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Frau Suchy was one of the most active members of Konrad Henlein's +_Deutscher Volksbund_, a propaganda and espionage organization +masquerading as a "cultural" body in the Sudeten area. She is today a +leading official in the new German Sudetenland. + +[3] The Rev. Smith returned to England when he learned that the +Czechoslovakian secret police were watching him. At the present writing +he had not returned to his church in Prague. + + + + +II + +_England's Cliveden Set_ + + +The work of foreign agents does not necessarily involve the securing +of military and naval secrets. Information of all kinds is important +to an aggressor planning an invasion or estimating a potential enemy's +strength and morale; and often a diplomatic secret is worth far more +than the choicest blueprint of a carefully guarded military device. + +There are persons whom money, social position, political promises or +glory cannot interest in following a policy of benefit to a foreign +power. In such instances, however, protection of class interests +sometimes drives them to acts which can scarcely be distinguished from +those of paid foreign agents. This is especially true of those whose +financial interests are on an international scale and who consequently +think internationally. + +Such class interests were involved in the betrayal of Austria to the +Nazis only a few months before aggressor nations were invited to cut +themselves a slice of Czechoslovakia; and it will probably never be +known just how much the Nazis' Fifth Column, working in dinner jackets +and evening gowns, influenced the powerful personages involved to +chart a course which sacrificed a nation and a people and which +foretold the Munich "peace" pact. + +The story begins when Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of England, +accepted an invitation to spend the week-end of March 26-27, 1938, at +Cliveden, Lord and Lady Astor's country estate at Taplow, +Buckinghamshire, in the beautiful Thames Valley. When the Prime +Minister and his wife arrived at the huge Georgian house rising out of +a fairyland of gardens and forests with the placid river for a +background, the other guests who had already arrived and their hosts +were under the horseshoe stone staircase to receive them. + +The small but carefully selected group of guests had been invited "to +play charades" over the week-end--a game in which the participants +form opposing sides and act a certain part while the opponents try to +guess what they are portraying. Every man invited held a strategic +position in the British government, and it was during this "charades +party" week-end that they secretly charted a course of British policy +which will affect not only the fate of the British Empire but the +course of world events and the lives of countless millions of people +for years to come. + +This course, which indirectly menaces the peace and security of the +United States, deliberately launched England on a series of maneuvers +which made Hitler stronger and will inevitably lead Great Britain on +the road to fascism. The British Parliament and the British people do +not know of these decisions, some of which the Chamberlain government +has already carried out. + +And without a knowledge of what happened during the talks in those +historic two days and what preceded them, the world can only puzzle +over an almost incomprehensible British foreign policy. + +Present at this week-end gathering, besides the Astors and the Prime +Minister and his wife, were the following: + +Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for Defense. + +Sir Alexander Cadogan, who replaced Sir Robert Vansittart as adviser +to the British Cabinet and who acts in a supervisory capacity over +the extraordinarily powerful British Intelligence Service. + +Geoffrey Dawson, editor of the London _Times_. + +Lord Lothian, Governor of the National Bank of Scotland, a determined +advocate of refusing arms to the Spanish democratic government while +Hitler and Mussolini supplied Franco with them. + +Tom Jones, adviser to former Premier Baldwin. + +The Right Honorable E.A. Fitzroy, Speaker of the House of Commons. + +The Baroness Mary Ravensdale, sister-in-law of Sir Oswald Mosley, +leader of the British fascist movement. + +To understand the amazing game played by the Cliveden house guests, in +which nations and peoples have already been shuffled about as pawns, +one must remember that powerful German industrialists and financiers +like the Krupps and the Thyssens supported Hitler primarily in order +to crush the German trade-union and political movements which were in +the late 1920's threatening their wealth and power. + +The Astors are part of the same family in the United States. Lady +Nancy Astor, born in Virginia, married into one of the richest +families in England. Her interests and the interests of Viscount +Astor, her husband, stretch into banking, railroads, life insurance +and journalism. Half a dozen members of the family are in Parliament: +Lady Astor, her husband, their son, in the House of Commons; and two +relatives in the House of Lords. The Astor family controls two of the +most powerful and influential newspapers in the world, the London +_Times_ and the London _Observer_. In the past these papers, whose +influence cannot be exaggerated, have been strong enough to make and +break Prime Ministers. + +Cliveden House, ruled by the intensely energetic and ambitious +American-born woman, had already left its mark upon current history +following other week-end parties. Lady Astor and her coterie had been +playing a more or less minor role in the affairs of the largest empire +in the world, but decisions recently reached at her week-end parties +have already changed the map of Europe, after almost incredible +intrigues, betrayals and double-crossings, carried through with the +ruthlessness of a conquering Caesar and the boundless ambitions of a +Napoleon. + +The week-ends at Cliveden House which culminated in the historic one +of March 26-27, began in the fall of 1937. Lady Astor had been having +teas with Lady Ravensdale and had entertained von Ribbentrop, Nazi +Ambassador to Great Britain, at her town house. Gradually the +Astor-controlled London _Times_ assumed a pro-Nazi bias on its very +influential editorial page. When the _Times_ wants to launch a +campaign, its custom is to run a series of letters in its famous +correspondence columns and then an editorial advocating the policy +decided upon. During October, 1937, the _Times_ sprouted letters +regarding Hitler's claims for the return of the colonies taken from +Germany after the war. + +Rather than have Germany attack her, England preferred to see Hitler +turn his eyes to the fertile Ukrainian wheat fields of the Soviet +Union. It meant war, but that war seemed inevitable. If Russia won, +England and her economic royalists would be faced with "the menace of +communism." But if Germany won, she would expand eastward and, +exhausted by the war, would be in no condition to make demands upon +England. The part Great Britain's economic royalists had to play, +then, was to strengthen Germany in her preparations for the coming war +with Russia and at the same time prepare herself to fight if her +calculations went wrong. + +Cabinet ministers Lord Hailsham (sugar and insurance interests), Lord +Swinton (railroads, power, with subsidiaries in Germany, Italy, etc.), +Sir Samuel Hoare (real estate, insurance, etc.), were felt out and +thought it was a good idea. Chamberlain himself had a hefty interest +(around twelve thousand shares) in Imperial Chemical Industries, +affiliated with _I.G. Farbenindustrie_, the German dye trust which is +very actively supplying Hitler with war materials. The difficulty was +Anthony Eden, British Foreign Minister, who was opposed to fascist +aggressions because he feared they would eventually threaten the +British Empire. Eden would certainly not approve of strengthening +fascist countries and encouraging them to still greater aggressions. + +At one of the carefully selected little parties the Astors invited +Eden. In the small drawing room banked with flowers the idea was +broached about sending an emissary to talk the matter over with +Hitler--some genial, inoffensive person like Lord Halifax (huge land +interests) for instance. Eden understood why the _Times_ had suddenly +raised the issue of the lost German colonies to an extent greater even +than Hitler himself, and Eden emphatically expressed his disapproval. +Such a step, he insisted, would encourage both Germany and Italy to +further aggressions which would ultimately wreck the British Empire. + +Nevertheless, the cabinet ministers who had been consulted brought +pressure upon Chamberlain and while the Foreign Secretary was in +Brussels on a state matter, the Prime Minister announced that Halifax +would visit the Führer. Eden was furious and after a stormy session +tendered his resignation. At that period, however, Eden's resignation +might have thrown England into a turmoil--so Chamberlain mollified +him. Public sympathy was with Eden and before he was eased out, the +country had to be prepared for it. + +In the quiet and subdued atmosphere of the diplomats' drawing rooms in +London they tell, with many a chuckle, how Lord Halifax, his bowler +firmly on his head, was sent to Berlin and Berchtesgaden in +mid-November, 1937, with instructions not to get into any arguments. +Lord Halifax, in the mellow judgment of his close friends, is one of +the most amiable and charming of the British peers, earnest, well +meaning and--not particularly bright. + +In Berlin Halifax met Goering, attired for the occasion in a new and +bewilderingly gaudy uniform. In the course of their conversation +Goering, resting his hands on his enormous paunch, said: + +"The world cannot stand still. World conditions cannot be frozen just +as they are forever. The world is subject to change." + +"Of course not," Lord Halifax agreed amiably. "It's absurd to think +that anything can be frozen and no changes made." + +"Germany cannot stand still," Goering continued. "Germany must expand. +She must have Austria, Czechoslovakia and other countries--she must +have oil--" + +Now this was a point for argument but the Messenger Extraordinary had +been instructed not to get into any arguments; so he nodded and in his +best pacifying tone murmured, "Naturally. No one expects Germany to +stand still if she must expand." + +After Austria was invaded and Halifax was asked by his close friends +what he had cooked up over there, he told the above story, expressing +the fear that his conversation was probably misunderstood by Goering, +the latter taking his amiability to mean that Great Britain approved +Germany's plans to swallow Austria. The French Intelligence Service, +however, has a different version, most of it collected during +February, 1938, which, in the light of subsequent events, seems far +more accurate. + +Lord Halifax, these secret-service reports state, pledged England to a +hands-off policy on Hitler's ambitions in Central Europe if Germany +would not raise the question of the return of the colonies for six +years. Within that period England estimated that Hitler would have +expanded, strengthened his war machine and fought the Soviet Union to +a victorious conclusion. + +Late in January 1938, Lord and Lady Astor invited some guests for a +week-end at Cliveden. The Prime Minister of England came and so did +Lord Halifax, Lord Lothian, Tom Jones and J.L. Garvin, editor of the +Astor-controlled London _Observer_. When Chamberlain returned to +London, he asked Eden to open negotiations with Italy to secure a +promise to stop killing British sailors and sinking British merchant +vessels in the Mediterranean. During this time the British Foreign +Office was issuing statements that Mussolini was "cooperating" in the +hunt for the "unidentified" pirates. + +British opinion, roused by the sinking of English ships, might hamper +deals with the fascist leaders if such attacks were not ended. In +return for the cessation of the piratical attacks, Chamberlain was +ready to offer recognition of Abyssinia and even loans to Italy to +develop her captured territory. It was paying tribute to a pirate +chieftain, but Chamberlain was ready to do it to quiet opposition at +home to the sinking of British vessels and to give him time in which +to develop his policy. + +Eden, who had fought for sanctions against the aggressor when +Abyssinia was invaded, obeyed orders but insisted that Italy must +first get her soldiers out of Spain. He did not want Mussolini to get +a stranglehold upon Gibraltar, one of the strategic life lines of the +British Empire. Mussolini refused and told the British Ambassador in +Rome that he and Great Britain would never to able to get together +because Eden insisted on the withdrawal of Italian troops from Spain, +and that it might help if a different Foreign Secretary were +appointed. Hitler, working closely with Mussolini in the Rome-Berlin +axis, also began to press for a different Foreign Secretary but went +Mussolini one better. Von Ribbentrop informed Chamberlain that Der +Führer was displeased with the English press attacks upon him, Nazis +and Nazi aggressions. Der Führer wanted that stopped. + +The Foreign Office of the once proud and still biggest empire in the +world promptly sent notes to the newspapers in Fleet Street +requesting that stories about Nazis and Hitler be toned down "to aid +the government," and most of the once proud and independent British +newspapers established a "voluntary censorship" at what amounted to an +order from Hitler relayed through England's Foreign Office. The +explanation the newspapers gave to their staffs was that the world +situation was too critical to refuse the government's request and, +besides that refusal would probably mean losing routine Foreign Office +and other government department news sources. The more than average +British citizen doesn't know even today how his government and +"independent" press took orders from Hitler. + +In the latter part of January, 1938, the French Intelligence Service, +still not knowing of the secret deal Halifax had made, learned that +Hitler intended to invade Austria late in February and that +simultaneously both Italy and Germany, instead of withdrawing troops +as they had said they would, planned to intensify their offensive in +Spain. When the French Intelligence learned of it, M. Delbos, then +French Foreign Minister, and Eden were in Geneva attending a meeting +of the Council of the League. Delbos excitedly informed Eden who, +never dreaming that Great Britain had not only agreed to sacrifice +Austria and betray France but was also double-crossing her own Foreign +Minister, telephoned Chamberlain from Geneva. + +The Prime Minister listened attentively, thanked him dryly, hung up, +and promptly telephoned Sir Eric Phipps, British Ambassador to France. +Sir Eric was instructed to get hold of M. Chautemps, the French +Premier at the time, and ask that Chautemps instruct Delbos to stop +frightening the British Foreign Secretary. But all during February the +French Intelligence kept getting more information about the planned +invasion of Austria and the proposed intensified offensive in Spain, +and relayed it to England with insistent suggestions for joint +precautions. Eden in turn relayed it to Chamberlain who always thanked +him. + +The date set for the invasion was approaching but Eden was still in +office and Hitler began to fear that perhaps "perfidious Albion" with +all her overtures of friendship might really be double-crossing +Germany. If England could send a special emissary to offer to sell out +Austria and double-cross her ally France, she might be quite capable +of tricking Germany. Simultaneously the Gestapo stumbled upon +information that the British Intelligence had reached into the top +ranks of the German Army and was working with high officers. Hitler, +not knowing how far the British Intelligence had penetrated, shook up +his cabinet, made Ribbentrop Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and +prepared for war in the event that England was leading him into a +trap. + +There are records in the British Foreign Office which show that +Hitler, before invading Austria, tested England to be sure he wasn't +being led into a trap. Von Ribbentrop informed Eden and Chamberlain +that Hitler intended to summon Schuschnigg, the Austrian Chancellor, +and demand that Austria rearrange her cabinet, take in Dr. +Seyss-Inquart and release imprisoned Nazis. Hitler knew that +Schuschnigg would immediately rush to England and France for aid. If +they turned Austria down it was safe to proceed with the invasion. + +The British Foreign Office records show that Schuschnigg did rush to +England and France for support, that France was ready to give it, but +that England refused, thereby forcing France to keep out of it. + +While these frantic maneuvers were going on, the Astor-controlled +_Times_ and _Observer_, the Nazi and the Italian press simultaneously +started a campaign against Eden. The date set for the sacrifice of +Austria was approaching and Eden had to go or it might fail. The +public, however, was with Eden; so another kind of attack was +launched. Stories began to appear about the Foreign Secretary's +health. There were sighs, long faces, sad regrets, but Eden stuck to +his post in the hope that he could do something. On February 19, +Hitler, tired of waiting, bluntly demanded that he be removed, and +with the newspaper campaign in full swing, Chamberlain "in response to +public opinion" removed him the very next day. + +The amiable Lord Halifax was appointed Foreign Secretary. Pro-fascists +like A.L. Lennon-Boyd, stanch supporter of Franco and admirer of +Hitler and Mussolini, were given ministerial posts. + +The Austrian invasion was delayed for three weeks because of the +difficulty in getting Eden out. When the news flashed to a startled +world that Nazi troops were thundering into a country whose +independence Hitler had promised to respect, M. Corbin, the still +unsuspecting French Ambassador, rushed to the Foreign Office to +arrange for swift joint action. This was at four o'clock in the +afternoon of March 11, 1938. Instead of receiving him immediately, +Lord Halifax kept him waiting until nine o'clock in the evening. By +that time Austria was Nazi territory. There was nothing to do but +protest; so Lord Halifax, with a straight face, joined France in a +"strong protest." It was not until a week after Austria had been +absorbed that the French Intelligence Service learned the details of +the Halifax deal and finally understood why England had side-stepped +the pleas for joint action and why the French Ambassador had been kept +cooling his heels until the occupation of Austria was completed. + +From Austria Hitler got more men for his army, large deposits of +magnesite, timber forests and enormous water-power resources for +electricity. From Czechoslovakia, if he could get it, Hitler would +have the Skoda armament works, one of the biggest in the world, +factories in the Sudeten area, be next door to Hungarian wheat and +Rumanian oil, dominate the Balkans, destroy potential Russian air and +troop bases in Central Europe, and place Nazi troops within a few +miles of the Soviet border and the Ukrainian wheat fields he has eyed +so long. + +Five days after Austria was invaded, on March 16, at 3:30 in the +afternoon, Lord Halifax personally summoned the Czechoslovakian +Minister. At four o'clock the Minister came out of the conference with +a dazed and bewildered air. Lord Halifax had made some "suggestions." +Revealing complete ignorance of what had happened and was happening in +Czechoslovakian politics, Halifax was nevertheless laying down the +law. + +It was obvious that the British Foreign Secretary was getting orders +from someone else, for Halifax suggested that the Central European +Republic try to conciliate Germany (which it had been doing for +months) and that a German be taken into the cabinet (there were +already three in it). On March 22 there was another meeting at which +the Minister learned that Halifax wanted the Czech Government to take +a Nazi into the cabinet--as Austria took Dr. Seyss-Inquart at Hitler's +orders. + +This pressure from England for Czechoslovakian Nazis to be given more +power in the government was virtually telling the beleaguered little +democracy to fashion a strong rope and hang itself. Subsequent events +showed that Chamberlain personally supplied the rope. + +Then came the historic week-end of March 26-27, 1938. + +The walls of the small drawing room at Cliveden House are lined with +shelves filled with books. The laughing and chatting guests had +gathered there after a delightful dinner. For the Prime Minister of +England to go through all sorts of contortions in a game of charades +might prove a trifle undignified; so the hostess suggested that they +play "musical chairs." + +Everyone thought it was a splendid idea and men servants in their +impressive blue liveries arranged the chairs in the required order, +carefully spacing the distances between them. One of the laughing and +bejeweled women took her place at the piano. In "musical chairs" there +is one person more than the number of chairs. When the music starts +the players march around the chairs. The moment the music stops +everyone dives for the nearest chair leaving the extra person standing +and subject to the hilarious jibes of the other players and those +rooting from the bleachers. It's one of the ways statesmen relax. + +The music started and the dour Prime Minister of the greatest empire +in the world, the Minister in charge of the Empire's defense measures, +the editor of England's most powerful newspaper, the Right Honorable +Speaker of the House of Commons, the sister-in-law of England's +leading fascist and several others started marching while the piano +tinkled its challenging tune. The Prime Minister, perhaps because he +is essentially conservative, marched cautiously and stepped quickly +between the spaces while Lady Astor eyed him shrewdly and the others +suppressed giggles. The Prime Minister tried to maintain at least the +dignity of his banking background but managed "to look only a little +porky" as one expressed it afterward. Suddenly the music stopped. +Everyone lunged for the nearest chair. The Prime Minister managed to +get one and plopped into it heavily. + +After half an hour or so some of the strategic rulers of Great Britain +got a little winded and quit. A conversation started on foreign +affairs and most of the wives retired to another room. When the +discussion was ended the little Cliveden house party had come to six +major decisions which will change the face of the world if +successfully carried through. + +Those decisions (maneuvers to put some of them into effect have +already begun) are: + +1. To inform France that England will go to her aid if she is +attacked, unless the attack results from a treaty obligation with +another power. + +2. To introduce peace time conscription in England. + +3. To appoint three ministers to coordinate industrial defense +(conscription in peace time); supervise military conscription; and, +coordinate the "political education of the people" (propaganda). + +4. To reach an agreement with Italy to preserve the legitimate +interest of both countries in the Mediterranean. + +5. To discuss mutual problems with Germany. + +6. To express the hope to Germany that her methods of self-assertion +be such as will not hinder mutual discussions by arousing British +public opinion against her. + +The two most important decisions in this plan are the one for the +conscription of labor in peace time and the effort to force France to +break the Franco-Soviet pact by choosing between England and Russia. + +Consider conscription first and the motives behind it: + +When any country whose workers are strongly organized starts veering +towards fascism, it must either win over the trade-unions in one way +or another or destroy them, for rebellious labor can prevent fascism +by means of the general strike. British labor is known to hate fascism +since it has learned that fascism destroys, among other things, the +value of the trade-unions and all that they have gained after many +years of struggle. Any veering by England toward fascism and fascist +alliances spells trouble with the trade-unions; hence, the decision +"to coordinate the political education of the people." This move is +particularly necessary since some trade-union leaders, especially in +the important armament industry, have already stated publicly that +unless the workers were given assurances that the arms labor was +manufacturing would be used in defense of democracy and not to destroy +it, they would not cooperate. + +Hence "the education of the people" and the conscription of labor in +peace time which would ultimately lead to government control over the +unions. With some variations it is the same procedure followed by +Hitler in getting control of the once extremely powerful German +trade-unions. + +A few days after this historic week-end, the _Times_ came out for +"national organization" and the wisdom of "national registration." +National registration, as the history of fascist countries has shown, +is the first step in the conscription of labor. With this opening gun +having been fired, it is a safe prophecy that if the Chamberlain +government remains in office British labor will witness one of the +most determined attacks ever made upon it in its history. All +indications point to the ground being laid and it may result in +splitting the trade-union movement, for some of the leaders are +willing to go with the government while others have already indicated +that they will refuse unless they know that it's for democracy and not +for fascism. + +The second important decision is to exert pressure upon France to +break her pact with the Soviet Union--something Hitler has been +unsuccessfully trying to accomplish for a long time. At the moment it +appears that Great Britain will succeed just as she has already +succeeded in breaking the Czechoslovakian-Soviet pact--another rupture +Hitler was determined upon. + +England has a reputation for shrewd diplomacy. In the past she has +used nations and peoples, played one against the other, betrayed, +sacrificed, double-crossed in the march of her empire. Since the +Cliveden week-end, however, with its resultant intrigues, England has, +to all appearances, finally double-crossed herself. + +Those who guide her destiny and the destinies of her millions of +subjects have apparently come to the conclusion that democracy, as +England has known it, cannot survive and that it is a choice between +fascism and communism. Under communism, the ruling class to which the +Cliveden week-end guests belong, stand to lose their wealth and power. +It is the fatuous hope of the economic royalists that under fascism +they will still sit on top of the roost, and so the Cliveden +week-enders move toward fascism. + +Hitler's Fifth Column finds strange allies. + + + + +III + +_France's Secret Fascist Army_ + + +Neither Hitler nor Mussolini could have foreseen the development of a +Cliveden set or England's willingness to weaken her own position as +the dominant European power by sacrificing Austria and a good portion +of Czechoslovakia. The totalitarian powers proceeded on the assumption +that when the struggle for control of central Europe, the Balkans and +the Mediterranean came they would have to fight. + +The Rome-Berlin axis reasoned logically that if, when the expected war +broke out, France could be disrupted by a widespread internal +rebellion, not only would she be weakened on the battlefield but +fascism might even be victorious in the Republic. In preparation for +this, the axis sent into France secret agents plentifully supplied +with money and arms, and almost succeeded in one of the most amazing +plots in history. + + +The opening scene of events which led directly to the discovery of how +far the foreign secret agents had progressed took place in the +Restaurant Drouant on the Place Gaillon which is frequented by leaders +of Paris' financial, industrial and cultural life. + +Precisely at noon, on September 10, 1937, Jacqueline Blondet, an +eighteen-year-old stenographer with marcelled hair, sparkling eyes, +and heavily rouged lips, passed through the rotating doors of the +famous restaurant and turned right as she had been instructed. She +had never been in so luxurious a place before--dining rooms done in +gray or brown marble with furniture to match. Two steps lead from the +gray to the brown room and Mlle. Blondet, not noticing them in her +excitement, slipped and would have fallen had not the old wine steward +who looks like Charles Dickens, caught and steadied her. + +The two men with whom she was lunching were at a table at the far +corner of the deserted room. The one who had invited her, François +Metenier, a well-known French engineer and industrialist, powerfully +built, with sharp eyes, dark hair, and a suave self-assured manner, +rose at her approach, smiling at her embarrassment. The other man, +considerably younger, was M. Locuty, a stocky, bushy haired man with +square jaws and heavy tortoise-shell eyeglasses. He was an engineer at +the huge Michelin Tire Works at Clermont-Ferrand where Metenier was an +important official. The industrialist introduced the girl merely as +"my friend" without mentioning her name. + +With the exception of two couples having a late breakfast in the gray +marble room, which they could see from their table, the three were +alone. + +"Shall we have a bottle of Bordeaux?" asked Metenier. "I ordered lunch +by 'phone but I thought I would await your presence on the wine." + +"Oh, anything you order," said Locuty with an effort at casualness. + +"Yes, you order the wine," said the stenographer. + +"_Garçon_, a bottle of St. Julien, Château Léoville-Poyferre 1870." + +The ghost of Charles Dickens, who had been hovering nearby, bowed and +smiled with appreciation of the guest's knowledge of a rare fine wine +and personally rushed off to the cellars for the Bordeaux. + +When the early lunch was over and the brandy had been set before +them, Metenier studied his glass thoughtfully and glanced at the two +portly men who had entered the brown dining room and sat some tables +away. From the snatches of conversation the three gathered that one +was a literary critic and the other a publisher. They were discussing +a thrilling detective story just published which the critic insisted +was too fantastic. + +Metenier said to Locuty: + +"You will have to make two bombs. I will take you to a very important +man in our organization, a power in France. He will personally give +you the material and show you how to make them. Then I will take you +to the places where you will leave them. I do not want them to see +me." + +In low tones, they discussed the bombing of two places. Metenier, a +pillar of the church, highly respected in his community and well-known +throughout France, cautioned them as they left. + +Why the vivacious blond stenographer was permitted to sit in on this +conversation, Locuty did not know, unless it was to tempt him, for, as +she bade him good-by, she squeezed his hand significantly and said she +wanted to see him again. + +Metenier drove Locuty to an office building where he introduced him to +a man he called "Leon"--actually Alfred Macon, concierge of a building +which Metenier and others used as headquarters for their activities. +Within a few moments the door of an adjacent room opened and Jean +Adolphe Moreau de la Meuse, aristocrat and leading French +industrialist, came in. He had a monocle in his right eye which he +kept adjusting nervously. His face was deeply marked and lined with +heavy bluish pouches under the eyes. With a swift glance he sized up +Locuty as Metenier rose. + +"This is the gentleman whom I mentioned," he said. + +"He understands his mission?" De la Meuse asked. + +"Yes," said Locuty. "You will teach me how to make them?" + +De la Meuse nodded. "It will be a time bomb which must be set for ten +o'clock tomorrow night. There will be nobody in the building at that +time, so no one will be hurt." + +An hour later Locuty, who had made both bombs and set the timing +devices, wrapped them into two neat packages. Metenier took him to the +General Confederation of French Employers' Building in the Rue de +Presbourg. In accordance with instructions he left one of the packages +with the concierge, after which Metenier took him to the Ironmasters' +Association headquarters on the Rue Boissiere, where Locuty left the +second package. + +On the evening of September 11, the General Confederation of French +Employers was scheduled to hold a meeting in their building. This +meeting was postponed; and, as De la Meuse had assured the Michelin +engineer, the concierges and their wives, contrary to custom, were not +in their buildings that evening. + +At ten o'clock, both bombs exploded. The plans had gone off as +arranged except for an accident, the investigation of which made +public the whole amazing conspiracy. Two French gendarmes standing +near one of the buildings were killed. + +Immediately after the bombs exploded, the Employers' Confederation and +the Ironmasters' Association issued statements charging the Communists +and the Popular Front with being responsible for the outrages and +accusing them of planning a reign of terror to seize control of +France. The accusations left a profound effect upon the French people +despite the Communists' assertions that they never countenance +terrorism. The _Sûreté Nationale_, the French Scotland Yard, opened an +intensive investigation which was spurred on by the deaths of the +unfortunate gendarmes. It was not long before the French people heard +of the almost incredibly fantastic plot to destroy the Popular Front +and establish fascism in France--a plot directed by leading French +industrialists and high army officers cooperating with secret agents +of the German and Italian Governments. + +The ramifications of the plot are so packed with dynamite in the +national and international arena that the French government, under +pressure from England as well as from some of its own industrialists, +government officials and army officers, has clamped the lid down on +further disclosures lest continued publicity seriously affect the +delicate balance of international relations. + + +It was obvious from what the police uncovered that it had taken +several years to organize the gigantic conspiracy. Within the teeming +city of Paris itself, steel and concrete fortresses had been secretly +built. Other cities throughout France were similarly ringed in +strategic places. Every one of these secret fortresses was stocked +with arms and munitions, and throughout the country, once the +confessions began, the police found thousands upon thousands of rifles +and pistols, millions of cartridges, hundreds of machine guns and +sub-machine guns. The fortresses themselves were fitted with secret +radio and telephone stations for communication among themselves. Code +books and evidence of arms-running from Germany and Italy were found. +A vast espionage network and a series of murders were traced to this +secret organization whose official name is the "Secret Committee for +Revolutionary Action." At their meetings they wore hoods to conceal +their identity from one another, like the Black Legion in the United +States, and the press promptly named them the "Cagoulards" ("Hooded +Ones"). + +Just how many members the Cagoulards actually have is unknown except +to its Supreme Council and probably to the German and Italian +Intelligence Divisions. Lists of names totaling eighteen thousand men +were turned up by the _Sûreté Nationale_, and the hundreds of steel +and concrete fortresses and the arms found in them point to a +membership of at least 100,000. The way the fortresses were built and +their strategic locations (blowing down the walls of the buildings +where the fortresses were hidden would have given them command of +streets, squares and government buildings) indicate supervision by +high military officials. + +When contractors buy enormous quantities of cement for dugouts, when +butchers' and bakers' lorries rattle over ancient cobblestones with +enormous loads of arms smuggled across German and Italian borders, +when thousands of people are drilled and trained in pistol, rifle and +machine-gun practice, it is impossible that the competent French +Intelligence Service and the _Sûreté Nationale_ should not get wind of +it. + +As far back as September, 1936, the _Sûreté Nationale_ knew that some +leading French industrialists with the cooperation of the German and +Italian Governments were building a military fascist organization +within France. Nevertheless it quietly permitted fortresses to be +built and stocked with munitions. The General Staff of the French +Army, from reports of Intelligence men in Germany and Italy, knew that +those countries were smuggling arms into France, but they permitted it +to go on. The General Staff knew that some eight hundred concrete +fortresses were being built under the supervision of M. Anceaux, a +building contractor of Dieppe, and that skilled members of the Secret +Committee for Revolutionary Action had been recruited for the building +and sworn to secrecy under penalty of death. They knew that these +fortresses were equipped with sending and receiving radios, knew that +some were within the shadow of military centers, knew that the +Cagoulards had a far-flung espionage system. But the French General +Staff made no effort to stop it. + +The Popular Front Government was in power at the time, and heads of +the Supreme War Council apparently preferred a fascist France to a +democratic one. In fact, officers and reserve officers of the French +Army cooperated with secret agents of their traditional enemy, +Germany, to build up this formidable secret army. + +The investigating authorities, stunned by their discoveries and the +high officials and individuals to whom their investigations led, +either did not dare go further with it, or, if they did, suppressed +the information. Some of it, however, came out. + +At the top of the Cagoulards is a Supreme War Council or General Staff +whose members have not been disclosed. Working with them are several +other organizations, all with innocent names, as for example the +"Society of Studies for French Regeneration." The Cagoulards' +activities are divided into broad general lines, each directed by an +individual in complete command and embracing: + +Buying war materials within France and smuggling war materials into +the country from Germany, Italy and Insurgent Spain, along with the +simultaneous weaving of an espionage network under Nazi and fascist +direction and leadership. + +Building concrete fortresses at strategic centers and storing smuggled +arms in them. + +Military training of secretly organized troops. + +Getting the money to carry on these extensive activities. + +Extreme care was, and still is, taken to conceal the identities of the +ordinary members and especially the leaders. For instance, one of the +leaders known to his subordinates as "Fontaine" is in reality Georges +Cachier, director of a large company in Paris and chief of the +Cagoulards' "Third Bureau," which is in charge of military movements. +Cachier is an Officer of the French Legion of Honor and a reserve +Lieutenant-Colonel in the French Army. + +The Cagoulards are still very active. Members are being recruited with +leaders pointing out to the fearful ones that there is nothing to +worry about--almost all of those arrested in the early days of the +investigation are free, out on bail or kept in a "gentleman's +confinement" where they can do virtually as they please. "Our power is +great," new members are told. + +As is customary in secret terrorist societies, the members are sworn +to silence with death as the penalty for indiscretion. The penalty +when it is employed is usually administered in American gangster +fashion. Each member is allotted to a "cell," the basic unit of the +military organization, and assigned to a secretly fortified post for +training. One of these posts discovered by the _Sûreté Nationale_ was +in an old boarding house run by two ancient spinsters with equally +ancient guests who spent their time in rockers, knitting and reading +and not dreaming that underneath the porch on which they sat so +tranquilly was a fortress with enough explosives to blow the whole +street to smithereens. Into this particular fortification, the cell +members would steal one by one after the old maids had retired, +entering by a concealed door three feet thick and electrically +operated. + +There are two different kinds of cells in the Cagoulards, "heavy" and +"light" ones. They differ in the number of men and the quantity of +armaments assigned to them. The "light" cell has eight men equipped +with army rifles, automatics, hand grenades, and one sub-machine gun; +the "heavy" one has twelve men similarly armed but with a machine gun +instead of a sub-machine gun. Three cells form a unit, three units a +battalion, three battalions a regiment, two regiments a brigade and +two brigades a division of two thousand men. The battalions (one +hundred and fifty men) are subdivided into squads of fifty to sixty +men with ten to twelve cars at their disposal for quick movement +throughout the city. These automobile squads are given intensive +training. + +Members are not required to pay dues, for enough money comes in from +industrialists and the German and Italian Governments to eliminate the +need of collecting money from members for operating expenses. Every +effort is made to function without written communications. No +membership cards are issued. Notices of meetings, drill and rifle +practice are issued verbally, and so far as the mass membership is +concerned, nothing in writing is placed in their hands. + +A twenty-page handbook with instructions on street fighting was issued +to group commanders and, lest a copy fall into wrong hands and betray +the organization, it was boldly entitled: _Secret Rules of the +Communist Party_. The instructions are specific and are based upon the +insurrectionary tactics issued to the Nazi Storm Troopers. They fall +into six sections: General Remarks; Group Fighting; Section Fighting; +Choice of Terrain; Commissariat; and Policing Groups. + +One or two excerpts from these instructions for street fighting +follow: + +"The particular force for street fighting is infantry, provided with +automatic weapons and hand grenades. Members of the detachments should +be instructed that automatic weapons must always be used in +preference. Essential arms are: sub-machine guns, rifles including +hunting rifles, hand grenades, revolvers, petards." (Petards are small +bombs used for blowing in doors.) + +With regard to "mopping up" in houses, the instructions state: + +"If the door is barricaded, it must be opened with tools or +explosives. If it is a heavy door, break it in by driving a lorry at +it. Clean up basements and cellars by throwing bombs down through the +air holes or other openings after your men have got into the house. +Only after these have exploded should the cellar doors be forced. +Then, when ascending the stairs, keep close to the walls while one of +your men keeps firing straight up the shaft. Mop up as you go down +floor by floor. If necessary, pierce holes in the ceilings and mop up +by throwing down hand grenades." + +The chief of the Cagoulards' espionage system is Dr. Jean Marie +Martin, a bushy-haired stocky man with dark, somber eyes. Dr. Martin +usually travels with several false passports and with the utmost +secrecy. At the moment he is in Genoa where he went to meet +Commendatore Boccalaro, Mussolini's personal representative in charge +of smuggling arms into foreign countries. + +The preparations by the Rome-Berlin axis point to plans for a fight to +a finish between fascist and non-fascist countries. A feeble or +disrupted democracy will obviously strengthen the fascist powers in +any coming struggle with anti-fascist powers. Germany and Italy, faced +on their own borders with a democratic France allied with the Soviet +Union in a military defense pact, would face a powerful enemy in the +event of war. But if France were torn by a bloody civil war, she would +be virtually unable even to defend her borders. Consequently, it is +essential for Germany and Italy to weaken and if possible destroy +France's democracy. + +France and Germany have been traditional enemies in their struggle for +land containing raw materials needed by their industries to compete in +the world markets. But the growth of the French labor movement and the +power of the Popular Front which threatened the control and the +profits of French industrialists and financiers, made them find more +in common with fascist and Nazi industrialists than with French +workers who menaced their economic and political control. The result +was that leading French industrialists were willing to cooperate with +Nazi and fascist agents to destroy the Popular Front and establish +fascism in France. About half of the 200,000,000 francs, which it is +estimated the fortresses and arms cost, was contributed by French +industrialists. The other half came from the German and Italian +Governments. + +Germany and Italy sent swarms of secret agents into France to +supervise the building of the underground military machine and to +carry on intensive espionage with the assistance of the French Army +and Government officials who were members of the Hooded Ones. The +espionage service was organized by Baron de Potters, an old +international spy who travels with two or more passports under the +names of Farmer and Meihert. De Potters gets his funds from the Nazis' +strongly guarded "Bureau III B," established in Berne, Switzerland at +21 Gewerbestrasse. "Bureau III B" is the official name of this branch +of the Gestapo. At the head of it is Boris Toedli whose activities +include not only espionage but underground diplomatic intrigue and +propaganda. He works directly under Drs. Rosenberg and Goebbels. +Toedli supplies not only the Baron but other espionage directors with +money and there is plenty of it at his disposal for quick emergency +uses. The money is deposited in the _Société des Banques Suisses_, +account No. 60941. + +The head of the Italian espionage system directing the work in France +and cooperating closely with the Nazis is Commendatore Boccalaro, head +of the Italian Government's Arsenal in Genoa. One of his specialties +is the smuggling of arms into foreign countries. + +Boccalaro's history shows that the not so fine Italian hand is +interfering in the internal affairs of foreign governments. As far +back as 1928, he secretly supplied carloads of arms from the Genoa +Arsenal to Hungary, and in 1936 he supplied Yugoslavian terrorists +with war materials in efforts to get those countries under Mussolini's +sphere of influence. Boccalaro, too, seems to have had reasons to +suppress information in at least one case where the death penalty was +inflicted upon a member of the Cagoulards. + + +Among the Hooded Ones who have been found with bullets or knives in +them was an arms runner named Adolphe-Augustin Juif, who tried to +charge the secret organization a little more than he should for +smuggling guns and munitions into France. When the organization +threatened him, he advised it not to resort to threats because he knew +a little too much. + +On February 8, 1937, his bullet-riddled body was found in San Remo, +Italy. When Juif's wife, not hearing from him, sought information +about his whereabouts, she wrote to Boccalaro, since she knew he was +working with the Genoa director. The Italian papers had announced the +finding of his body; nevertheless, on March 3, Boccalaro wrote to the +murdered man's widow: + +"Your husband, my dear friend, is carrying on a special and delicate +mission (perhaps in Spain or Germany) and has special reasons of a +delicate nature not to inform even his own family where he is at the +present moment." + +Among the men whom Juif met before he was murdered was Eugène +Deloncle, director of the Maritime and River Transport Mortgage +Company and one of the most important industrialists in France. +Deloncle, a high official in the Cagoulards, used the name of +"Grosset" in his conspiratorial activities. The other man whom the +murdered Juif met is General Edouard Arthur Du-seigneur, former Air +Force chief and Military Adviser to the French Air Ministry. The +General is one of the military heads of the Cagoulards and frequently +met with Baron de Potters. + + +The _Sûreté Nationale_, the French Intelligence Service, and the +examining magistrate have documentary evidence that Germany and Italy +were and are deliberately conspiring to throw France, as they did +Spain, into a civil war. Publication of these documents would have +far-reaching effects, internally and externally. Great Britain, +however, planning to establish a four-cornered pact between England, +France, Germany and Italy, brought pressure to bear upon France to +suppress further disclosures about the Cagoulards. To England's +pressure was added that of leading French industrialists, financiers, +government and army officials. Gradually, news about the Cagoulards is +dying out. The real heads of the Hooded Ones either have not been +named or, if arrested in the early days of the investigation, have +been released on bail. And recruiting for the underground army is +still going on. + + + + +IV + +_Dynamite Under Mexico_ + + +Most people in the UNITED STATES feel secure from European or Asiatic +aggression since wide oceans apparently separate us from the +conquering ambitions of a Führer or a Son of the Sun. However, despite +our desire to be left in peace, the Rome-Berlin axis, which Japan +joined, has cast longing eyes upon the Western Hemisphere. The Monroe +Doctrine is of value only so long as aggressor nations feel we are too +strong for them to violate it; recent history has shown what pieces of +paper are worth. + +In the process of trying to get a foothold in the Americas, the Nazis +have sent agents into all of the countries, but because most of the +Central and South American republics are still resentful of past acts +by the "Colossus of the North," they offer the most fertile fields. + +The two spots on the Western Hemisphere most vital to the United +States are the Panama Canal Zone and Mexico--the Zone because it is +our trade and naval life line between the oceans and Mexico because +potential enemies could find in it perfect military and naval bases. + +Let us see what the totalitarian powers are doing in Mexico: + + +On June 30, 1937, the S.S. "Panuco" of the New York and Cuba Mail +Steamship Co. steamed into Tampico, Mexico, from New York with a +mysterious cargo consigned to one Armeria Estrada. As soon as she +docked, the cargo was quickly transferred to the Atchison, Topeka and +Santa Fe Railroad freight car No. 45169, which was awaiting it. A +gentleman known around the freight yards as A.M. Cabezut, arranged for +the car to leave immediately for the state of San Luis Potosí in the +heart of Mexico. + +There was no record on the bill of lading to show that the shipper was +the Winchester Repeating Arms Company of New Haven, Conn., and that +the cargo, ordered on January 23 and February 23, 1937, by an Italian +named Benito Estrada, was a large quantity of rifles, pistols and one +hundred and forty cases of cartridges for various caliber guns. + +When the car arrived in San Luis Potosí, it was met by an elderly, +mustached German named Baron Ernst von Merck, who took the shipment to +General Saturnino Cedillo, former governor of the state[4] and a +well-known advocate of fascism. One week later the elderly German met +a carload shipment of "farm implements." When it was unloaded in San +Luis Potosí, the farm implements turned out to be dynamite. + +Von Merck, who has been Cedillo's right-hand man, was during the World +War a German spy stationed in Brussels. A member of Cedillo's staff[5] +he traveled constantly between San Luis Potosí, where the arms were +cached, and the Nazi Legation in Mexico City. + +On December 21, 1937, Baron von Merck flew to Guatemala--the same day +that a cargo of arms from Germany was to be landed off the wild jungle +coast of Campeche in Southern Mexico. + +Guatemala, just south of Mexico, is the most thoroughly organized +fascist country in Central or South America. Its chief industries, +coffee and bananas, are virtually controlled by Germans, whose +enormous plantations overlap into the state of Chiapas, Mexico. But +President Jorge Ubico, who is not much of an Aryan, prefers +Mussolini's brand of fascism because the Nazi theory of Nordic +supremacy does not strike a sympathetic chord in the President's +heart. As a result, the Italian Minister to Guatemala is Ubico's +adviser on almost all matters of state. + +Guiseppe Sotanis, a mysterious Italian officer who sits in the Gran +Hotel in San José, Costa Rica, collecting stamps and studying his +immaculate fingernails, arranges for shipments of Italian arms into +Guatemala. A few months ago Sotanis, the Italian minister to +Guatemala, and Ubico met in Guatemala City. Shortly thereafter the +Italian arms manufacturing company, Bredda, sent Ubico two hundred +eighty portable machine guns, sixty anti-aircraft machine guns and +seventy small caliber cannon. + +But President Ubico is not hopelessly addicted to one brand of +fascism. Nazi ships make no attempt to conceal their landing of arms +and munitions at Puerto Barrios. From there they are transported by +car, river and horse into the dense chicle forests in the mountain +regions, then across the Guatemalan border into Chiapas and Campeche. + + +During March, 1938, mysterious activities took place in the heart of +the chicle forests in Campeche. The region is a dense jungle inhabited +by primitive Indian tribes. There is little reason for anyone to build +an airport in this territory, much of which has not even been +explored. But if the Mexican Government will instruct its air squadron +to go to Campeche and fly forty miles north of the Rio Hondo and a +little west of Quintana Roo border, they will find a completed airport +in the heart of the chicle jungle; and if they will fly a little due +west of the small villages of La Tuxpena and Esperanza in Campeche, +they will find two more secret airports. + + +The Mexican Government knows that arms are being smuggled in through +its own ports, across the Guatemalan border, and across the wide, +sparsely inhabited two-thousand-mile stretch of American border. Both +American and Mexican border patrols have been increased, but it is +almost impossible to watch the entire region between Southern +California and Brownsville. Few contraband runners are caught, +apparently because neither the American nor Mexican Governments seem +to know the routes followed or who the leading smugglers are. + +On February 12, 1938, José Rebey and his brother Pablo, who live in +the Altar district of Sonora and know every foot of the desert, drove +to Tucson, Arizona, where they met two unidentified Americans. On +February 16, 1938, José Rebey and Francisco Cuen, old and close +friends of Gov. Roman Yocupicio, drove a Buick to the sandy, deserted +wastes near Sonoyta, just south of the American border where one of +the two unidentified Americans delivered a carload of cases securely +covered with sheet metal. As soon as the cases were transferred into +Rebey's car, he turned back on Sonora's flat, dusty roads, passing +Caborca, La Cienega, and turning on the sun-dried rutted road to Ures, +which lies parched and dry in the semi-tropical sun. + +Ures is the central cache for arms smuggled into Sonora by Yocupicio, +and the Rebey brothers and Cuen are among the chief contraband +runners. The load they carried that day consisted of Thompson guns and +cartridges, and the route followed is the one they generally use. A +secondary route used by one of Cuen's chief aids, a police delegate +from the El Tiro mine, lies over the roads to Ures by way of Altar. + +If in time of war it becomes necessary for guard or patrol work to +deflect any troops from the army, or ships from the navy, it is of +advantage to the enemy. If a coming war found the United States lined +up with the democratic as against the fascist powers and serious +uprisings broke out in Mexico, it would require several U.S. regiments +to patrol the border and a number of U.S. ships to watch the thousands +of miles of coast line to prevent arms running to American countries +sympathetic to the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis. + + +The three fascist powers that have cast longing eyes upon Central and +South America have apparently divided their activities in the +Americas, with Japan concentrating on the coast lines and the Panama +Canal, Germany on the large Central and South American countries and +Italy upon the small ones. + +In Mexico, Nazi agents work directly with Mexican fascist groups, and +have undertaken to carry the brunt of spreading anti-democratic +propaganda to turn popular sentiment against the "Colossus of the +North," and to develop a receptive attitude toward the totalitarian +form of government. + +Italy concentrates on espionage, with particular attention to Mexican +aid to Loyalist Spain. It was the Italian espionage network in Mexico +which learned the course of the ill-fated "Mar Cantabrico" which left +New York and Vera Cruz with a cargo of arms for the Loyalists and was +intercepted and sunk by an Insurgent cruiser. + +Though Germany, even more than Italy, is utilizing her propaganda +machine in the Americas' markets, the Japanese are not troubling about +that just yet. Their commercial missions seem to be much less +interested in establishing business connections than in taking +photographs. The chief commercial activity all three countries are +intensely interested in is getting concessions from Mexico for iron, +manganese and oil--materials essential for war. President Lázaro +Cárdenas, however, has stated his dislike of fascism on several +occasions. Since Germany, Japan and Italy must obtain these products +wherever they can get them, it would be to their advantage if a +government more friendly to fascism were in power. But, should that +prove impossible, the existence of a strong, fascist movement would +have, in time of war, tremendous potentialities for sabotage. + +Hence, Mexico is today being battered by pro-fascist propaganda +broadcasts from Germany on special short-wave beams, and Nazi and +fascist agents surreptitiously meet with discontented generals to +weave a network throughout the country. + +The radio propaganda is devoted chiefly to selling the wonders of +totalitarian government, and to the dissemination of subtle, indirect +comments calculated to turn popular feeling against the United States. +In addition to regular broadcasts, material printed in Spanish and in +German by the _Fichte Bund_ with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, is +smuggled into Mexico in commercial shipments. A Nazi bund to direct +this propaganda was organized secretly because of the government's +unfriendly attitude toward fascism. The bund operates as the _Deutsche +Volksgemeinschaft_ and its propaganda center functions under the name +of the "United German Charities." This organization, on the top floor +of the building at 80 Uruguay Street, Mexico City, is actually the +"Brown House," in direct contact with Nazi propaganda headquarters in +Hamburg. + +Some of the propaganda distributed in Mexico is smuggled off Nazi +ships docking in Los Angeles, and is transported across the American +border by agents working under Hermann Schwinn, director of Nazi +activities for the West Coast of the United States. The propaganda +sent by Schwinn across the American border is chiefly for distribution +around Guaymas, where a special effort is being made to win the +sympathy of the people. Meanwhile Yocupicio caches arms in Ures and +the bland Japanese continue charting the harbors and coast lines. + +The Nazis began to build fascism in Mexico right after Hitler got into +power. In 1933 Schwinn called a meeting in Mexicali of several Nazi +agents operating out of Los Angeles, including General Rodriguez, and +several members of a veterans organization. It was at this meeting +that the Mexican Gold shirts were organized. Under the direction of +Rodriguez and his right-hand men (Antonio F. Escobar was one of them), +the fascist organization drilled and paraded, but little official +attention was paid to them. Five years ago few people realized the +intensity and possibilities of Nazi propaganda and organization. The +only ones in Mexico who watched the growth of the fascist military +body were the trade-unionists and the Communists. They remembered what +happened in Italy and Germany when the Black Shirts and the Brown +Shirts were permitted to grow strong. + +On November 20, 1935, Rodriguez and his organization staged a military +demonstration in Mexico City, and marched upon the President's palace. +Trade-unionists, liberals and Communists barred their way. When the +pitched battle was over, five Gold Shirts were dead, some sixty +persons wounded, and Rodriguez himself had been stabbed by a woman +worker, on her lips the furious cry, "Down with fascism!" + +When the Gold Shirt leader was discharged from the hospital, he found +that his organization had been made illegal, and he himself exiled. +Rodriguez went to El Paso, Texas, and immediately, working through +Escobar, set about establishing the "Confederation of the Middle +Class" to take over now the illegal Gold Shirt work and consolidate +the various Mexican fascist groups. Its headquarters was established +at 40 Passo de la Reforma. + +Rodriguez kept in touch with Schwinn through Henry Allen, a native +American of San Diego, who acts as liaison man. It was Allen, on +orders from Schwinn, who last year secretly met in Guaymas Ramon F. +Iturbe, a member of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies. Iturbe is in +constant touch with the fascist groups in Mexico City. + +The Gold Shirts smuggled arms into Mexico along the border between +Laredo and Brownsville, and cached them in Monterrey. On January 31, +1938, Gold Shirts attempted to attack Matamoros, near Brownsville. A +Mexican policeman was killed and another wounded in the fighting. Two +days later Gold Shirts surrounded Reynosa, some distance west of +Matamoros, but met peasants armed with rifles, pistols and knives. The +fascists withdrew and Rodriguez vanished, only to appear in San Diego, +California, on February 19, 1938 for a secret meeting with Plutarco +Elias Calles, the former President of Mexico. After a three-hour +conference Rodriguez went to Los Angeles, met Schwinn, and proceeded +to Mission, Texas, where he established new headquarters. + +A few days after these conferences, he sent two men into Mexico under +forged passports to discuss closer cooperation among the fascist +leaders. The men sent into Mexico were an American named Mario +Baldwin, one of Rodriguez's chief assistants, and a Mexican named +Sanchez Yanez. They established headquarters at 31 José Joaquin +Herrera, apartment 1-T, and met for their secret conferences in Jesus +de Avila's tailor shop at 22 Isabel la Catolico. + + +In the latter part of June, 1935, an amiable bar fly arrived in Mexico +City from Berlin as civilian attaché to the German Legation. A +civilian attaché is the lowest grade in the diplomatic ranks and the +salary is just about enough to keep him going. Nevertheless, Dr. +Heinrich Northe, at that time not quite thirty, and not especially +well-to-do, established a somewhat luxurious place at 64 Tokyo St. and +bought a private airplane for "pleasure jaunts" about Mexico. Northe +is seldom at the Nazi Legation. He is more apt to be found in Sonora, +where Yocupicio is storing arms and where the Japanese fishing fleet +is active, or in Acapulco, whose harbor fascinates the Japanese. He +used to make frequent visits to Cedillo just before the General +started his rebellion. On March 4, 1938, Northe took off "for a +vacation" in the Panama Canal Zone. He stopped off in Guatemala on the +way down. + +The persistently vacationing commercial attaché, before coming to +Mexico, was part of the Gestapo network in Moscow and Bulgaria. +Immediately after the Nazis got control of Germany, Northe went into +the German "diplomatic service," and was one of the first secret +agents sent to the German Embassy in Moscow. The Russian secret +service apparently watched him a little too closely, for he was +shifted to Sofia, Bulgaria, where he bought a private plane and flew +wherever he wished. In 1935, when the signers of the "anti-Communist +pact" decided to concentrate upon Mexico, Northe was transferred to +Mexico City. + +One of Northe's chief aids is a German adventurer who was a spy during +the World War. When the War ended, Hans Heinrich von Holleuffer, of 36 +Danubio St., Mexico City, worked hard at earning a dishonest penny in +Republican Germany. When the law got after him, he skipped to Mexico, +where, without even pausing for breath, he went to work on his fellow +countrymen in the New World. Berlin asked for his arrest and +extradition and von Holleuffer fled to Guatemala. That was in 1926. He +came back to Mexico in 1931 under the name of Hans Helbing. + +When Hitler got into power von Holleuffer's brother-in-law became a +high official in the Gestapo. Since there was no danger of the Nazis +extraditing him on charges of fraud and forgery, Hans Helbing became +Hans Heinrich von Holleuffer again and, without any visible means of +support, established a swanky residence at the above address, got an +expensive automobile, a chauffeur, and some very good-looking maids. +Since he has not defrauded anyone lately, the German colony in Mexico +still wonders how he does it. + +He does it by being in charge of arms smuggling from Germany to +Mexican fascists. During the latter part of December, 1937, he +directed the unloading of one of the heaviest cargoes of arms yet +shipped into Mexico. Northe had informed von Holleuffer that a German +vessel whose name even Northe had not yet been given, would be ready +to land a cargo of guns, munitions and mountain artillery somewhere +along the wild and deserted coast of Campeche where there are miles of +shore with not even an Indian around. Von Holleuffer was instructed to +arrange for unloading the cargo and having it removed into the +interior. + +On December 19, 1937, von Holleuffer arranged a meeting in Mexico City +with Julio Rosenberg of 13 San Juan de Letran and Curt Kaiser at 34 +Bolivar, the latter's home. He offered them fifty thousand pesos to +take the contraband off the boat and transport it through the chicle +jungles to the destination he would give them. + + +Shortly after the Japanese-Nazi pact was signed, the Japanese +Government arranged with the somewhat naive Mexican Government for +Japanese fishing experts to conduct "scientific explorations" along +Mexico's Pacific Coast in return for teaching Mexicans how to catch +fish scientifically. The agreement provided that two Japanese, J. +Yamashito and Y. Matsui, be employed by the Mexican Government for the +exploratory work. + +Matsui arrived in Mexico in 1936 and immediately became interested in +the fish situation at Acapulco, which from a naval standpoint has the +best harbor on the entire long stretch of Mexico's Pacific coast line. +In February, 1938, he decided that it was important to the west-coast +shrimp-fishing studies for him to do some exploratory work along the +northeast part of the Mexican coast, near the American border, and +there he went. + +Immediately after the agreement was signed, three magnificent fishing +boats, the "Minatu Maru," the "Minowa Maru" and the "Saro Maru," which +had been hovering out on the Pacific while the negotiations were going +on, appeared in Guaymas. Their captains reported to the Nippon Suisan +Kaisha, a fishing company with headquarters in Guaymas. Eighty per +cent of this company's stock is owned by the Japanese Government. + +Each ship is equipped with large fish bins which can easily be turned +into munition carriers, each has powerful short-wave sending and +receiving sets; and each has extraordinarily long cruising powers +ranging from three to six thousand miles. These boats do not do much +fishing. They confine themselves to "exploring," which includes the +taking of soundings of harbors, especially Magdalena Bay. Apparently +the explorers want to know how deep the fish can swim and whether +there are any rocks or ledges in their way. + + +That Germany, Japan and Italy are not working toward peaceful ends in +Mexico is slowly dawning upon the Mexican Government. Influential +government and trade-union leaders have repeatedly shown their dislike +of Nazism and fascism and have urged propaganda against them. + + +On the morning of October 5, 1937, Freiherr Riedt von Collenberg, Nazi +minister to Mexico, telephoned the Japanese and Italian ministers to +suggest a joint meeting to discuss steps to counteract the attacks on +fascism and their countries. The Japanese minister, Sacchiro Koshda, +suave and skilled in such matters, thought it would not be wise to +meet in any of the legations. The Italian minister suggested the +offices of the Italian Union on San Cosne Avenue. + +At half past one in the afternoon of October 7, the ministers arrived, +each in a taxi instead of the legation car which carries a conspicuous +diplomatic license plate. At this secret meeting which lasted until +after four, they concluded that it would be unwise for them personally +to take any steps to counteract the anti-fascist activities--that it +would be wiser to work indirectly through fascist organizations like +the Confederation of the Middle Class and its associated bodies. A few +days earlier each minister had received a letter from several +organizations allied with the Confederation of the Middle Class. It +was an offer to help the Berlin-Tokyo-Rome combination. A free +translation of the passage which the ministers discussed (from the +letter received by the Japanese minister which I now have) follows: + +"We, exactly like the representatives of the three powers, love our +Fatherland and are disposed to any sacrifice to prevent the +intervention of these elements [Jews and Communists] in our politics, +in which, unfortunately, they have begun to have great influence. And +we will employ, and are employing, all legal methods of struggle to +make an end of them." + +The phrase "legal methods" is frequently employed by those who suggest +illegal activity. The German Minister knew that the _Union +Nacionalista Mexicana_, one of the signers of the letter, was run by +Escobar, and that Carmen Calero, 12 Place de la Concepcion, Mexico +City, an elderly woman physician active in many fascist organizations, +was a member of the _Partido Anti-reelectionista Accion_, another of +the signers. + +One month later the various fascist groups got enough money to launch +an intensive pro-fascist drive under the usual guise of fighting +Communism. José Luis Noriega, Secretary of the Nationalist Youth of +Mexico, which also signed the letters to the ministers, left for the +United States to organize an anti-Cardenas drive. At the same time, +Carmen Calero left on a mysterious mission to Puebla on November 12, +1937, with a letter from Escobar to J. Trinidad Mata, publisher of the +local paper _Avance_. She carried still another letter addressed to +their "distinguished comrades," without mentioning names, and signed +by both Escobar and Ovidio Pedrero Valenzuela, President of the +_Accion Civica Nacionalista_. The "distinguished comrades" to whom she +presented the letter were the Nazi honorary consul in Puebla, Carl +Petersen, Avenida 2, Oriente 15, and a Japanese agent named L. +Yuzinratsa with whom the consul has been in repeated conferences. + +Six weeks after the secret meeting of the Japanese, German and Italian +ministers, and one week after she went to Puebla, Dr. Carmen Calero +got twenty-two kilos of dynamite and stored it in a house at 39 Juan +de la Mateos, in Mexico City. She, her sister, Colonel Valenzuela, and +four others, met at her home and laid plans to assassinate President +Cárdenas by blowing up his train when he left on a proposed trip to +Sonora. + +On November 18, 1937, the secret police made a series of simultaneous +raids upon Dr. Calero's and Valenzuela's homes and the house where the +dynamite was cached. They arrested everyone in the houses. But once +the arrests had been made, the Mexican Government found itself in a +quandary. To bring the prisoners to trial would involve foreign +governments and create an international scandal; so Cárdenas +personally ordered the secret police to release them. + +The arrests, however, scared the wits out of the ministers, and their +horror was not lessened when they discovered that the letters from the +fascist organizations had vanished from their files. They wouldn't +even answer the telephone when one of the released fascist leaders +called. It was then that the Mexican fascists decided to send a +special messenger to Francisco Franco in Spain (November 30, 1937) +with the request that Franco intercede to get money from Hitler to +help overthrow Cárdenas, since the Nazi minister was too scared to +cooperate. The special messenger was Fernando Ostos Mora. He never got +there. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] In May, 1938, Cedillo launched an abortive rebellion and is now +being hunted by the Mexican government. + +[5] After Cedillo's defeat von Merck fled to New York and went to +Germany. + + + + +V + +_Surrounding the Panama Canal_ + + +There is a little shirt shop in Colon, Panama, on Calle 10a between +Avenida Herrera and Avenida Amador Guerrero, whose red and black +painted shingle announces that Lola Osawa is the proprietor. + +Across the street from her shirt shop, where the red light district +begins, is a bar frequented by natives, soldiers and sailors. Tourists +seldom go there, for it is a bit off the beaten track. In front of the +bar is a West Indian boy with a tripod and camera with a telescopic +lens. He never photographs natives, and wandering tourists pass him +by, but he is there every day from eight in the morning until dark. +His job is to photograph everyone who shows an undue interest in the +little shirt shop and particularly anyone who enters or leaves it. +Usually he snaps your picture from across the street, but if he misses +you he darts across and waits to take another shot when you come out. + +I saw him take my picture when I entered the store. It was almost high +noon and Lola was not yet up. The business upon which she and her +husband are supposed to depend for a living was in the hands of two +giggling young Panamanian girls who sat idly at two ancient Singer +sewing machines. + +"You got shirts?" I asked. + +Without troubling to rise and wait on me, they pointed to a glass case +stretched across the room and barring quick entrance to the shop +proper. I examined the assortment in the case, counting a total of +twenty-eight shirts. + +"I don't especially like these," I said. "Got any others?" + +"No more," one of them giggled. + +"Where's Lola?" + +"Upstairs," the other said, motioning with her thumb to the ceiling. + +"Looks like you're doing a rushing business, eh?" They looked puzzled +and I explained: "Busy, eh?" + +"Busy? No. No busy." + +There is little work for them and neither Lola nor they care a whoop +whether or not you buy any of the shop's stock of twenty-eight shirts. +Lola herself pays little attention to the business from which she +obviously cannot earn enough to pay the rent, let alone keep herself +and her husband, pay two girls and a lookout. + +The little shirt shop is a cubbyhole about nine feet square, its +wooden walls painted a pale, washed-out blue. A deck which cuts the +store's height in half, forms a little balcony which is covered by a +green and yellow print curtain stretched across it. To the right, +casually covered by another print curtain, is a red painted ladder by +which the deck is reached. On the deck, at the extreme left, where it +is not perceptible from the street or the shop, is another tiny ladder +which reaches to the ceiling. + +If you stand on the ladder and press against the ceiling directly over +it, a well-oiled trap door will open soundlessly and lead you into +Lola's bedroom above the shop. In front of the window with the blue +curtain is a worn bed, the hard mattress neatly covered with a +counterpane. At the head of the mattress is a mended tear. It is in +this mattress that Lola hides photographs of extraordinary military +and naval importance. I saw four of them. + +The charming little seamstress is one of the most capable of the +Japanese espionage agents operating in the Canal Zone area. Lola Osawa +is not her right name. She is Chiyo Morasawa, who arrived at Balboa +from Yokahama on the Japanese steamship "Anyo Maru" on May 24, 1929, +and promptly disappeared for almost a year. When she appeared again, +she was Lola Osawa, seamstress. She has been an active Japanese agent +for almost ten years, specializing in getting photographs of military +importance. Her husband, who entered Panama without a Panamanian visa +on his passport, is a reserve officer in the Japanese Navy. He lives +with Lola in the room above the shop, never does any work though he +passes as a merchant, and is always wandering around with a camera. +Occasionally he vanishes to Japan. His last trip was in 1935. At that +time he stayed there over a year. + + +To defend the ten-mile-wide and forty-six-mile-long strip of land, +lakes and canal which the Republic of Panama leased to the United +States "in perpetuity," the army, navy and air corps have woven a +network of secret fortifications, laid mines and placed anti-aircraft +guns. Foreign spies and international adventurers play a sleepless +game to learn these military and naval secrets. The Isthmus is a +center of intrigue, plotting, conniving, conspiracy and espionage, +with the intelligence departments of foreign governments bidding high +for information. For the capture or disablement of the Canal by an +enemy would mean that American ships would have to go around the Horn +to get from one coast to another--a delay which in time of war might +prove to be the difference between victory and defeat. + +Because of the efficiency and speed of modern communication and +transportation, any region within five hundred to a thousand miles of +a military objective is considered in the "sensitive zone," especially +if it is of great strategic importance. Hence, espionage activities +embrace Central and South American Republics which may have to be +used by an enemy as a base of operations. Costa Rica, north of the +Canal, and Colombia, south of it, are beehives of secret Japanese, +Nazi and Italian activities. Special efforts are made to buy or lease +land "for colonization," but the land chosen is such that it can be +turned into an air base almost overnight. + +For decades Japanese in the Canal Zone area have been photographing +everything in sight, not only around the Canal, but for hundreds of +miles north and south of it; and the Japanese fishing fleet has taken +soundings of the waters and harbors along the coast. Since the +conclusion of the Japanese-Nazi "anti-Communist pact," Nazi agents +have been sent to German colonies in Central and South America to +organize them, carry on propaganda and cooperate secretly with +Japanese agents. Italy, which had been only mildly interested in +Central America, has become extremely active in cultivating the +friendship of Central American Republics since she joined the +Tokyo-Berlin tie-up. Let me illustrate: + +The recognized vulnerability of the Canal has caused the United States +to plan another through Nicaragua. The friendship of the Nicaraguan +Government and people, therefore, is of great importance to us from +both a commercial and a military standpoint. It is likewise of +importance to others. + +Italy undertook to gain Nicaragua's friendship when she joined the +Japanese-Nazi line-up. First, she offered scholarships, with all +expenses paid, for Nicaraguan students to study fascism in Italy. +Then, on December 14, 1937, about one month after a secret Nazi agent +arrived in Central America with orders to step on the propaganda and +organizational activity, the Italian S.S. "Leme" sailed out of Naples +with a cargo of guns, armored cars, mountain artillery, machine guns +and a considerable amount of munitions. + +On January 11, 1938, the Secretary of the Italian Legation in San +José, Costa Rica, flew to Managua, Nicaragua, to witness the delivery +of arms which arrived in Managua on January 12, 1938. Diplomatic +representatives do not usually witness purely business transactions, +but this was a shipment worth $300,000 which the Italian Government +knew Nicaragua could not pay. But, as one of the results, Italy today +has a firm foothold in the country through which the United States +hopes to build another Canal. The international espionage underground +world, which knew that the shipment of arms was coming, has it that +Japan, Germany and Italy split the cost of the arms among themselves +to gain the friendship of the Nicaraguan Government. + +A flood of Nazi propaganda sent on short-wave beams is directed at +Central and South America from Germany. In Spanish, German, Portuguese +and English, regular programs are sent across at government expense. +Government subsidized news agencies flood the newspapers with "news +dispatches" which they sell at a nominal price or give away. The +programs and the "news dispatches" explain and glorify the +totalitarian form of government, and since many of the sister +"republics" are dictatorships, they are ideologically sympathetic and +receptive. + +The Nazis are strong in Colombia, south of the Canal, with a Bund +training regularly in military maneuvers at Cali. Since the +Japanese-Nazi pact, the Japanese have established a colony of several +hundred at Corinto in the Cauca Valley, thirty miles from Cali. + +The Japanese colony was settled on land carefully chosen--long, level, +flat acres which overnight can be turned into an air base for a fleet +landed from an airplane carrier or assembled on the spot. And it is +near Cali that Alejandro Tujun, a Japanese in constant touch with the +Japanese Foreign Office, is at this writing dickering for the purchase +of 400,000 acres of level land for "colonization." On such an acreage +enough military men could be colonized to give the United States a +first-class headache in time of war. It is two hours flying time from +Cali to the Canal. + +The entrances on either side of the Panama Canal are secretly mined. +The location of these mines is one of the most carefully guarded +secrets of the American navy and one of the most sought after by +international spies. + +The Japanese, who have been fishing along the West Coast and +Panamanian waters for years, are the only fishermen who find it +necessary to use sounding lines to catch fish. Sounding lines are used +to measure the depths of the waters and to locate submerged ledges and +covered rocks in this once mountainous area. Any fleet which plans to +approach the Canal or use harbors even within several hundred miles +north or south of the Canal must have this information to know just +where to go and how near to shore they can approach before sending out +landing parties. + +The use of sounding lines by Japanese fishermen and the mysterious +going and comings of their boats became so pronounced that the +Panamanian Government could not ignore them. It issued a decree +prohibiting all aliens from fishing in Panamanian waters. + + +In April, 1937, the "Taiyo Maru," flying the American flag but manned +by Japanese, hauled up her anchor in the dead of night and with all +lights out chugged from the unrestricted waters into the area where +the mines are generally believed to be laid. The "Taiyo" operated out +of San Diego, California, and once established a world's record of +being one hundred and eleven days at sea without catching a single +fish. The captain, piloting the boat from previous general knowledge +of the waters rather than by chart, unfortunately ran aground. The +fishing vessel was stranded on a submerged ledge and couldn't get off. + +In the morning the authorities found her, took off her captain and +crew--all of whom had cameras--and asked why the boat was in +restricted waters. + +"I didn't know where I was," said the captain. "We were fishing for +bait." + +"But bait is caught in the daytime by all other fishermen," the +officials pointed out. + +"We thought we might catch some at night," the captain explained. + + +Since 1934, when rumors of the Japanese-Nazi pact began to circulate +throughout the world, the Japanese have made several attempts to get a +foothold right at the entrance to the Canal on the Pacific side. They +have moved heaven and earth for permission to establish a +refrigeration plant on Taboga Island, some twelve miles out on the +Pacific Ocean and facing the Canal. Taboga Island would make a perfect +base from which to study the waters and fortifications along the coast +and the islands between the Canal and Taboga. + + +When this and other efforts failed and there was talk of banning alien +fishing in Panamanian waters, Yoshitaro Amano, who runs a store in +Panama and has far flung interests all along the Pacific coasts of +Central and South America, organized the Amano Fisheries, Ltd. In +July, 1937, he built in Japan the "Amano Maru," as luxurious a fishing +boat as ever sailed the seas. With a purring diesel engine, it has the +longest cruising range of any fishing vessel afloat, a powerful +sending and receiving radio with a permanent operator on board, and an +extremely secret Japanese invention enabling it to detect and locate +mines. + +Like all other Japanese in the Canal Zone area, Amano, rated a +millionaire in Chile, goes in for a little photography. In September, +1937, word spread along the international espionage grapevine that +Nicaragua, through which the United States was planning another Canal, +had some sort of peculiar fortifications in the military zone at +Managua. + +Shortly thereafter the Japanese millionaire appeared at Managua with +his expensive camera and headed straight for the military zone. Thirty +minutes after he arrived (8:00 A.M. of October 7, 1937), he was in a +Nicaraguan jail charged with suspected espionage and with taking +pictures in prohibited areas. + +I mention this incident because the luxurious boat was registered +under the Panamanian flag and immediately began a series of actions so +peculiar that the Republic of Panama canceled the Panamanian registry. +The "Amano" promptly left for Puntarenas, Costa Rica, north of the +Canal, which has a harbor big enough to take care of almost all the +fleets in the world. Many of the Japanese ships went there, sounding +lines and all, when alien fishing was prohibited in Panamanian waters. +Today the "Amano Maru" is a mystery ship haunting Puntarenas and the +waters between Costa Rica and Panama and occasionally vanishing out to +sea with her wireless crackling constantly. + + +Some seventy fishing vessels operating out of San Diego, California, +fly the American flag. San Diego is of great importance to a potential +enemy because it is a naval as well as an air base. Of these seventy +vessels flying the American flag, ten are either partially or entirely +manned by Japanese. + +Let me illustrate how boats fly the American flag: + +On March 9, 1937, the S.S. "Columbus" was registered as an American +fishing vessel under certificate of registry No. 235,912, issued at +Los Angeles. The vessel is owned by the Columbus Fishing Company of +Los Angeles. The captain, R.I. Suenaga, is a twenty-six-year-old +Japanese, born in Hawaii and a full-fledged American citizen. The +navigator and one sailor are also Japanese, born in Hawaii but +American citizens. The crew of ten consists entirely of Japanese born +in Japan. + +The ten boats which fly the American flag but are manned by Japanese +crews are: "Alert," "Asama," "Columbus," "Flying Cloud," "Magellan," +"Oipango," "San Lucas," "Santa Margarita," "Taiyo," "Wesgate." + +Each boat carries a short-wave radio and has a cruising range of from +three to five thousand miles, which is extraordinary for just little +fishing boats. They operate on the high seas and where they go, only +the master and crew and those who send them know. The only time anyone +gets a record of them is when they come in to refuel or repair. + +In the event of war half a dozen of these fishing vessels, stretched +across the Pacific at intervals of five hundred or a thousand miles, +would make an excellent system of communication for messages which +could be relayed from one to another and in a few moments reach their +destination. + +In Colón on the Atlantic side and in Panama on the Pacific, East and +West literally meet at the crossroads of the world. The winding +streets are crowded with the brown and black people who comprise +three-fourths of Panama's population. On these teeming, hot, tropical +streets are some three hundred Japanese storekeepers, fishermen, +commission merchants and barbers-few of whom do much business, but all +of whom sit patiently in their doorways, reading the newspapers or +staring at the passer-by. + +I counted forty-seven Japanese barbers in Panama and eight in Colón. +In Panama they cluster on Avenida Central and Calle Carlos A. Mendoza. +On both these streets rents are high and, with the exception of +Saturdays when the natives come for haircuts, the amount of business +the barbers do does not warrant the three to five men in each shop. +Yet, though they earn scarcely enough to meet their rent, there is not +a lowly barber among them who does not have a Leica or Contax camera +with which, until the sinking of the "Panay," they wandered around, +photographing the Canal, the islands around the Canal, the coast line, +and the topography of the region. + +They live in Panama with a sort of permanence, but nine out of ten do +not have families--even those advanced in years. Periodically some of +them take trips to Japan, though, if you watch their business +carefully, you know they could not possibly have earned enough to pay +for their passage. And those in the outlying districts don't even +pretend to have a business. They just sit and wait, without any +visible means of support. It is not until you study their locations, +as in the Province of Chorrera, that you find they are in spots of +strategic military or naval importance. + +Since there were so many barbers in Panama, the need for an occasional +gathering without attracting too much attention became apparent. And +so the little barber, A. Sonada, who shaves and cuts hair at 45 Carlos +A. Mendoza Street, organized a "labor union," the Barbers' +Association. The Association will not accept barbers of other +nationalities but will allow Japanese fishermen to attend meetings. +They meet on the second floor of the building at 58 Carlos A. Mendoza +Street, where many of the fishermen live. At their meetings one guard +stands outside the room and another downstairs at the entrance to the +building. + +On hot Sunday afternoons when the Barbers' Association gathers, the +diplomatic representatives of other nations are usually taking a +siesta or are down at the beach, but Tetsuo Umimoto, the Japanese +Consul, climbs the stairs in the stuffy atmosphere and sits in on the +deliberations of the barbers and visiting fishermen. It is the only +barbers' union I ever heard of whose deliberations were considered +important enough for a diplomatic representative to attend. This labor +union has another extraordinary custom. It has a special fund to put +competitors up in business. Whenever a Japanese arrives in Panama, the +Barbers' Association opens a shop for him, buys the chairs-provides +him with everything necessary to compete with them for the scarce +trade in the shaving and shearing industry! + +At these meetings the barber Sonada, who is only a hired hand, sits +beside the Japanese Consul at the head of the room. Umimoto remains +standing until Sonada is seated. When another barber, T. Takano, who +runs a little hole-in-the-wall shop and lives at 10 Avenida B, shows +up, both Sonada and the Consul rise, bow very low and remain standing +until he motions them to be seated. Maybe it's just an old Japanese +custom, but the Consul does not extend the same courtesy to the other +barbers. + +In attendance at these guarded meetings of the barbers' union and +visiting fishermen, is Katarino Kubayama, a gentle-faced, soft-spoken, +middle-aged businessman with no visible business. He is fifty-five +years old now and lives at Calle Colón, Casa No. 11. + + +Way back in 1917 Kubayama was a barefoot Japanese fisherman like the +others now on the west coast. One morning two Japanese battleships +appeared and anchored in the harbor. From the reed-and vegetation +covered jungle shore, a sun-dried, brown _panga_ was rowed out by the +barefooted fisherman using the short quick strokes of the native. His +brown, soiled dungarees were rolled up to his calves; his shirt, open +at the throat, was torn and his head was covered by a ragged straw +hat. + +The silvery notes of a bugle sounded. The crew of the flagship lined +up at attention. The officers, including the Commander, also waited +stiffly at attention while the fisherman tied his _panga_ to the +ship's ladder. As Kubayama clambered on board, the officers saluted. +With a great show of formality they escorted him to the Commander's +quarters, the junior officer following behind at a respectful +distance. Two hours later Kubayama was escorted to the ladder again, +the trumpet sounded its salute, and the ragged fisherman rowed +away--all conducted with a courtesy extended only to a high ranking +officer of the Japanese navy. + +Today Kubayama works closely with the Japanese Consul. Together they +call upon the captains of Japanese ships whenever they come to Panama, +and are closeted with them for hours at a time. Kubayama says he is +trying to sell supplies to the captains. + + +Japanese in the Canal Zone area change their names periodically or +come with several passports all prepared. There is, for instance, +Shoichi Yokoi, who commutes between Japan and Panama without any +commercial reasons. On June 7, 1934, the Japanese Foreign Office in +Tokyo issued passport No. 255,875 to him under the name of Masakazu +Yokoy with permission to Visit all Central and South American +countries. Though he had permission for all, he applied only for a +Panamanian visa (September 28, 1934), after which he settled down for +a while among the fishermen and barbers. On July 11, 1936, the Foreign +Office in Tokyo handed Yokoy another passport under the name of +Shoichi Yokoi, together with visas which filled the whole passport and +overflowed onto several extra pages. Shoichi or Masakazu is now +traveling with both passports and a suitcase full of film for his +camera. + +Several years ago a Japanese named T. Tahara came to Panama as the +traveling representative of a newly organized company, the Official +Japanese Association of Importers and Exporters for Latin America, and +established headquarters in the offices of the Boyd Bros. shipping +agency in Panama. + +Nelson Rounsevell, publisher of the _Panama American_, who has fought +Japanese colonization in Canal areas, printed a story that this big +businessman got very little mail, made no efforts to establish +business contacts and, in talking with the few businessmen he met +socially, showed a complete lack of knowledge about business. Tahara +was talked about and orders promptly came through for him to return to +Japan. + +This was in 1936. Half a year later, a suave Japanese named Takahiro +Wakabayashi appeared in Panama as the representative of the +Federation of Japanese Importers and Exporters, the same organization +under a slightly changed name. Wakabayashi checked into the cool and +spacious Hotel Tivoli, run by the United States Government on Canal +Zone territory and, protected by the guardian wings of the somewhat +sleepy American Eagle, washed up and made a beeline for the Boyd Bros. +office, where he was closeted with the general manager for over an +hour. + +Wakabayashi's business interests ranged from taking pictures of the +Canal in specially chartered planes, to negotiating for manganese +deposits and attempting to establish an "experimental station to grow +cotton in Costa Rica." + +The big manganese-and-cotton-photographer man fluttered all over +Central and South America, always with his camera. One week he was in +San José, Costa Rica; the next he made a hurried special flight to +Bogotá, Colombia (November 12, 1937); then back to Panama and Costa +Rica. He finally got permission from Costa Rica to establish his +experimental station. + +In obtaining that concession he was aided by Giuseppe Sotanis, an +Italian gentleman wearing the fascist insignia in the lapel of his +coat, whom he met at the Gran Hotel in San José. Sotanis, a former +Italian artillery officer, is a nattily dressed, slender man in his +early forties who apparently does nothing in San José except study his +immaculate finger nails, drink Scotch-and-sodas, collect stamps and +vanish every few months only to reappear again, still studying his +immaculate finger nails. It was Sotanis who arranged for Nicaragua to +get the shipment of arms and munitions which I mentioned earlier. + +This uncommunicative Italian stamp collector paved the way for +Wakabayashi to meet Raul Gurdian, the Costa Rican Minister of Finance, +and Ramon Madrigal, Vice-president of the government-owned National +Bank and a prominent Costa Rican merchant. Shortly after Costa Rica +gave Wakabayashi permission to experiment with his cotton growing, +both the Minister of Finance and the Vice-president of the government +bank took trips to Japan. + +The ink was scarcely dry on the agreement to permit the Japanese to +experiment in cotton growing before a Japanese steamer appeared in +Puntarenas with twenty-one young and alert Japanese and a bag of +cotton seed. They were "laborers," Wakabayashi explained. The +"laborers" were put up in first-class hotels and took life easy while +Wakabayashi and one of the laborers started hunting a suitable spot on +which to plant their bag of seed. All sorts of land was offered to +them, but Wakabayashi wanted no land anywhere near a hill or a +mountain. He finally found what he wanted half-way between Puntarenas +and San José--long, level, flat acres. He wanted this land at any +price, finally paying for it an annual rental equal to the value of +the acres. + +The twenty-one "laborers" who had been brought from Chimbota, Peru, +where there is a colony of twenty thousand Japanese, planted an acre +with cotton seed and sat them down to rest, imperturbable, silent, +waiting. The plowed land is now as smooth and level as the acres at +Corinto in Colombia, south of the Canal. + +The harbor at Puntarenas, as I mentioned earlier, would make a +splendid base of operations for an enemy fleet. Not far from shore are +the flat, level acres of the "experimental station" and the twenty-one +Japanese who could quickly turn these smooth acres into an air base. +It is north of the Panama Canal and within two hours flying time of +it, as Corinto is south of the Canal and within two hours flying time. + +The Boyd Bros. steamship agency, to which Tahara and Wakabayashi went +immediately upon arrival, is an American concern. The manager, with +whom each was closeted, is Hans Hermann Heildelk of Avenida Peru, No. +64, Panama City, and, though efforts have been made to keep it secret, +part owner of the agency. Heildelk is also the son-in-law of Ernst F. +Neumann, the Nazi Consul to Panama. + + +On November 15, 1937, Heildelk returned from Japan by way of Germany. +Five days later, on November 20, 1937, his father-in-law, who, besides +being Nazi Consul, owns in partnership with Fritz Kohpcke, one of the +largest hardware stores in Panama, told his clerks that he and his +partner would work a little late that night. Neither partner went out +to eat and the corrugated sliding door of the store, at Norte No. 54 +in the heart of the Panamanian commercial district, was left open +about three feet from the ground so that passers-by could not see +inside unless they stooped deliberately. + +At eight o'clock a car drew up at the corner of the darkened street in +front of Neumann & Kohpcke, Ltd. Two unidentified men, Heildelk and +Walter Scharpp, former Nazi Consul at Colón who had also just returned +from Germany, stepped out, and stooping under the partly open door, +entered the store. Once inside Scharpp quietly assumed command. To all +practical purposes they were on German territory, for the Nazi +consulate office was in the store. + +Scharpp announced that the group had been very carefully chosen +because of their known loyalty to Nazi Germany and because of their +desire to promote friendship for Germany in Latin American countries +and to cooperate with the Japanese, who had their own organization +functioning efficiently in Central and South America. + +"Some of these countries are already friendly," said Scharpp, "and we +can work undisturbed provided we do not interfere in the Panama Canal +Zone. It is North American territory, and you will have trouble from +their officials and intelligence officers as well as political +pressure from the States. You understand?" + +"Panama is friendly to North America," said Kohpcke. + +"Precisely. At the present time it is not wise to do much more than +broadcast, but at a propitious time we shall be able to explain +National Socialism to the Panamanians." + +He looked at Kohpcke, whose left eyelid droops more than his right, +giving him the appearance of being perpetually sleepy. Kohpcke looked +at Neumann. + +"Tonight we want to organize a Bund in Panama. In a few days I am +going to Costa Rica to organize another and then leave for +Valparaiso." + +The others nodded. They had been informed that Scharpp was to have +complete charge of Nazi activities from Valparaiso to Panama. That +night they established _Der Deutsch-Ausländische Nazi Genossenschafts +Bund_, with the understanding that it function secretly. The list of +members was to be controlled by Neumann. + +Scharpp explained that secrecy was advisable to avoid antagonizing the +Panamanian Government, "which is friendly to Italy and we can +cooperate with the Italian Legation here." + +"The Japanese are more important that the Italians," Kohpcke pointed +out. + +"The Japanese will work with us," Heildelk assured him. + +"But we can't be seen with them--" + +"Fritz [Kohpcke] will call a meeting in Jacobs' house," said Scharpp. + +"Jacobs!" exclaimed one of the unidentified men. "You don't mean the +Austrian Consul!" + +Scharpp nodded slowly. "He is generally believed to be anti-Nazi. His +partner spent twelve years in Japan and speaks Japanese perfectly. The +Japanese Consul knows and trusts both. We cannot find a better place." + +On the night of December 13, 1937, forty carefully selected Germans +who, during the intervening month had become members of the Bund in +Panama, arrived singly and in small groups at the home of August +Jacobs-Kantstein, Panamanian merchant and Austrian Honorary Consul. + +Five Japanese, headed by Tetsuo Umimoto, also came. One, K. Ishibashi, +formerly captain of the "Hokkai Maru" and a reserve officer in the +Japanese Navy; K. Ohihara, a Japanese agent staying with the Japanese +Consul but having no visible reason to be in Panama; two captains of +Japanese fishing boats and A. Sonada, the barber who organized the +labor union and in whose presence the Consul does not sit until the +barber is seated. + +Throughout the meeting, presided over by the elderly but tall and +soldierly Austrian Consul, the Japanese said little. It was primarily +the first get-together for Nazi-Japanese cooperation in the Canal Zone +area. + +"Mr. Umimoto has not said much," remarked Jacobs. + +"There is so little to say when there are so many present," said the +little Consul apologetically. + +The others understood. The Japanese were too shrewd to discuss +detailed plans with so many present. + +A few days later Umimoto called upon Heildelk and was closeted with +him for three hours. Shortly after that Sonada made a hurried trip to +Japan. + + + + +VI + +_Secret Agents Arrive in America_ + + +Germany's interest in the Panama Canal became acute only after Japan +joined the Rome-Berlin axis "to exchange information about +Communism"--an exchange which appears to be more concerned with +military secrets than with Communism. + +The activities of Japanese and Nazi agents in Latin American countries +and especially around the Canal, the organizing of a fascist rebellion +in Mexico to the south of us and intensive propaganda carried on in +Canada to the north, are but part of the broad invasion of the Western +Hemisphere by the Fifth Column--an invasion which began almost +immediately after Hitler got into power. Since the United States is +the most important country in the Americas, it was and is subject to +special concentration by secret Nazi agents. + + +The first threads spun spread out in many directions, with propaganda +as the base from which to broaden espionage activities. One of the +earliest of the secret agents sent to this country was an American, +Colonel Edwin Emerson, soldier of fortune, mediocre author and fairly +competent war correspondent. Emerson lived at 215 East 15th Street, +New York City and had an office in Room 1923 at 17 Battery Place, the +address of the German Consulate General. Room 1923 was rented by a +representative of the German Consul General. The rent paid was nominal +and in at least one instance, to avoid its being traced, it was paid +in cash by Hitler's diplomatic representative. Prior to the renting of +this room, Emerson had desk space with the German Consulate General +for six weeks. + +The May 15, 1933, issue of the _Amerika Deutsche Post_, a Nazi +propaganda organ published in New York, carried an advertisement +stating that the editor of this paper made his headquarters in +Emerson's room. This was the first indication that Emerson had arrived +in this country to handle Nazi propaganda. + +For many years Emerson had wandered about the globe covering +assignments for newspapers and magazines and always bragging about his +Americanism and his "patriotism." One of his great boasts was that he +was with Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish-American war; +what he never told was that Roosevelt brought him back from Cuba in +irons. + +From his room paid for by the German Consul General, Emerson launched +the "Friends of Germany."[6] This organization was the chief +disseminator of pro-Hitler and anti-democratic propaganda in the +United States, but the Colonel directed the propaganda somewhat +stupidly. The "Friends of Germany" held meetings with "storm troops" +in full uniform; bitter attacks were made against Jews and Catholics +at large mass meetings. Visiting officers and sailors, from German +ships docked in New York, appeared at these meetings to preach fascism +and Nazism, until a wave of resentment swept the country. One of the +keynotes of these talks was sounded by Edward F. Sullivan of Boston at +a meeting held at Turnhalle, Lexington Avenue and 85th Street, on June +5th, 1934, when he repeatedly referred to Jews as "dirty, stinking +kikes" and announced that he proposed to organize a strong Nazi group +in Boston. + +Propaganda Minister Goebbels in Berlin became annoyed at the public +reaction, and the entire Nazi foreign propaganda service was +reorganized. Emerson was ordered back to Germany for explicit +instructions on how to carry on propaganda without antagonizing the +entire country. + + +In October, 1933, Royal Scott Gulden (who has no connection with the +mustard business, but is a distant relative of the head of it), who +had been cooperating with Emerson, tried to organize an espionage +system to watch Communists. In this effort Gulden enlisted the aid of +Fred R. Marvin, a professional patriot. At three o'clock on the +afternoon of March 10, 1934, a very secret meeting was called by +Gulden at 139 East 57th Street. Present were Gulden, J. Schmidt and +William Dudley Pelley, head of the Silver Shirts. + +The meeting decided to adopt anti-semitic propaganda--to play on +latent anti-semitism--as part of the first campaign to attract +followers. The country was in a serious economic crisis with +considerable unrest throughout the land. Both Hitler and Mussolini got +into power in periods of great unrest by promising peace and security +to the bewildered people. Men of means were terrified by fears of +"revolution" and this group, directed by Emerson, began to preach that +the revolution might come any minute and that the Jews were +responsible for Moscow, the Third International, the Mississippi flood +and anything else that troubled the people. When the meeting ended the +"Order of '76"[7] had been born and Royal Scott Gulden appointed +Secretary to direct espionage and propaganda. + + +From the very beginning Emerson tried to get people into places which +would provide access to important information. On February 22, 1934, a +merger of the Republican Senatorial and Congressional Campaign +Committees to conduct the Party's Congressional campaign independent +of the Republican National Committee was announced in a joint +statement by Senator Daniel O. Hastings of Delaware and +Representative Chester C. Bolton of Ohio, chairmen, respectively, of +the two committees. + +Several weeks before this announcement, the two committees had +employed Sidney Brooks, for years head of the research bureau of the +International Telephone and Telegraph Company. Brooks, because of his +position, was close in the confidences of Republican Senators and +Congressmen. He heard state secrets and had his fingers on the +political pulse of the country. + +Shortly after he took charge of the joint committee for the Senators +and Congressmen, Brooks made a hurried visit to New York. On March 4, +1934, he drove to the Hotel Edison and went directly to Room 830 where +a man registered as "William D. Goodales--Los Angeles," was awaiting +him. Mr. "Goodales" was William Dudley Pelley, head of the Silver +Shirts, who had come to New York to confer with Brooks and Gulden. +After this conference the two went to Gulden's office where they had a +confidential talk that lasted over an hour during which an agreement +was made to merge the Order of '76 with the Silver Shirts so as to +carry on their propaganda more effectively. + +Brooks himself, on his mysterious visits to New York, went to 17 +Battery Place, which houses the German Consulate General. At that +address he visited one John E. Kelly. In a letter to Kelly dated as +far back as December 27, 1933, he wrote: "I will be in New York Friday +to Monday and can be reached in the usual manner--Gramercy 5-9193 +(care Emerson)." + +Sidney Brooks also was a member of the secret Order of '76. Before +anyone could join he had to give, in his own handwriting and sealed +with his own fingerprints, certain details of his life. Brooks' +application for membership in this espionage group organized with the +help of a Nazi sent to this country, revealed that he was the son of +the Nazi agent, Colonel Edwin Emerson, and that he was using his +mother's maiden name so that connection could not be traced too +easily. + + [Illustration: Application by Sidney Brooks for membership in the + secret Order of '76, showing him to be a son of the Nazi agent, + Colonel Edwin Emerson.] + +One of the other early propagandists who is still active as a +"patriot" was Edward H. Hunter, Executive Secretary of the Industrial +Defense Association, Inc., 7 Water Street, Boston. Early in 1934, +while the negotiations for the merging of the espionage order and the +Silver Shirts were going on, this rooter for American liberty heard +Germany was spending money in this country and on March 3, he wrote to +the "Friends of Germany": + +"Under separate cover we are sending you twenty-five copies of our +_Swan Song of Hate_ as requested and you may have as many as you wish. + +"Several times I have conferred with Dr. Tippelskirch and at one time +suggested that if he could secure the financial backing from Germany, +I could start a real campaign along lines that would be very +effective. + +"All that is necessary to return America to Americans is to organize +the many thousands of persons who are victims of Judaism and I am +ready to do that at any time." + +Dr. Tippelskirch, with whom Hunter discussed getting money from +Germany for anti-semitic work, was the German Consul in Boston. + + +The activities of the early agents ranged from propaganda to smuggling +and espionage, though at the beginning the espionage was on a minor +scale. It took several years of organizing pro-German groups in this +country before they could pick the most reliable for the more +dangerous spy work. Much of the propaganda was sent in openly through +the mails, but some of it was of so vicious and anti-democratic +character that the Propaganda Ministry in Germany decided it was wiser +to smuggle it in from Nazi ships. + + +One of the chief smugglers was Guenther Orgell,[8] at that time head +of the "Friends of Germany," through whom the propaganda was +distributed to various branches of the organization throughout the +country. In those days Orgell lived at 606 West 115th Street, New York +City,[9] and was ostensibly employed as an electrical engineer by the +Raymond Roth Co., 25 West 45th Street. Let me illustrate how he +worked: + +At twenty minutes to ten on the evening of March 16, 1934, the North +German Lloyd "Europa" was preparing to sail at midnight. The gaily +illuminated boat was filled with men and women, many in evening dress, +seeing friends off to Europe. German stewards, all of them members of +the ship's Nazi _Gruppe_, stood about smiling, bowing, but watching +every passenger and visitor carefully. + +People wandered all over the boat. Many visited the library on the +main promenade deck, which has a German post office. There was a great +deal of laughter and chatter. Orgell, dressed in an ordinary business +suit and carrying a folded newspaper in his hands, wandered in. +Catching the post office steward's eye, he casually took four letters +from his coat pocket and handed them to the steward who as casually +slipped them into his pocket. There were no stamps on the letters, +which, incidentally, constituted a federal offense. + +Still so casual in manner that the average observer would not even +have noticed the transfer of the letters, Orgell wandered over to a +desk in the library and rapidly wrote another letter--so important, +apparently, that he dared not carry it with him for fear of a mishap. +The letter was sealed and handed to the steward. + +The library had a great many visitors. No one seemed to be paying any +attention to this visitor or passenger talking to the steward. With a +quick glance around him, Orgell took in everyone in the library and +seemed satisfied. He caught the steward's eye again and nodded. The +steward opened a closet in the library, the second one left of the +main aisle on the port side toward the stern of the boat. A thin +package was taken from its hiding place and quickly slipped to Orgell +who covered it with his newspaper and promptly left the ship. + +This was the manner in which Nazi secret instructions and spy reports +were sent and received--a procedure that kept up until the arrest of +the Nazi spies who were tried late in 1938. + + +When Orgell needed trusted men to deliver messages to and from the +boats as well as to smuggle off material, he usually called upon the +American branch of the _Stahlhelm_, or Steel Helmets, which used to +drill secretly in anticipation of _Der Tag_ in this country. Only when +he felt that he was not being watched, or only in the event of the +most important messages, did he go aboard the ships personally. +Orgell's liaison man in the smuggling activities was Frank +Mutschinski, a painting contractor who used to live at 116 Garland +Court, Garritsen Beach, N.Y. + +Mutschinski came to the United States from Germany on the S.S. "George +Washington," June 16, 1920. He was commander of one of the American +branches of the _Stahlhelm_ which had offices at 174 East 85th Street, +New York. While he was in command, he received his orders direct from +Franz Seldte, subsequently Minister of Labor under Hitler. Seldte at +that time was in Magdeburg, Germany. Branches of the _Stahlhelm_ were +established by him and Orgell in Rochester, Chicago, Philadelphia, +Newark, Detroit, Los Angeles and Toronto (the first step in the Fifth +Column's invasion of Canada). + +To help Orgell in his smuggling activities, Mutschinski supplied him +with a chief assistant, Carl Brunkhorst. It was Brunkhorst's job to +deliver the secret letters. Nazi uniforms for American Storm Troopers +were smuggled into this country off German ships by Paul Bante who +lived at 186 East 93rd Street, New York City. Bante, at the time he +was engaged in the smuggling activities, was a member of the 244th +Coast Guard as well as the New York National Guard. + + +In the early days of organizing the Nazi web over the United States, +the German agents received cooperation from racketeering "patriots" +who saw possibilities of scaring the wits out of the American people +by announcing that the "revolution" was just around the corner. The +country was in an economic crisis, the American people were bewildered +and didn't know which way to turn, there was considerable unrest in +the land, and the Nazi agents and their American counterparts +visualized in Hitler's cry that "Communism and the Jews" were +responsible, grand pickings from the scared suckers. + +Since Communism, especially in those restless days in the depths of +the depression, was the bugaboo of the rich, it was inevitable that +some unscrupulous but shrewd observers of the American scene would +take advantage of this fear and capitalize on it. One of the chief +racketeers, a man who subsequently worked very closely with secret +Nazi agents in this country, was Harry A. Jung, Honorary General +Manager of the American Vigilant Intelligence Federation, Post Office +Box 144, Chicago. This organization was originally founded to spy on +Communists and Socialists. For a while Jung collected from terrified +employers by promising to inform them about the threat of +revolution--what time it would occur and who would lead it. In return +he collected plenty. + +In time employers got fed up when the rowboat loaded with +bomb-throwing Bolsheviks failed to arrive from Moscow. Pickings became +slim. Jung was badly in need of a new terror-inspiring "issue" with +which to collect from the suckers. He found it at the time Emerson was +sent here from Germany. Gulden, Pelley and their associates were +launching an anti-semitic campaign as the first step to attract people +to the "Friends of Germany." Jung likewise discovered the "menace of +the Jew" and peddled it for all it was worth. + + [Illustration: Showing the type of literature peddled by + patrioteer Harry A. Jung.] + +There was an air of secrecy about the whole outfit. Even the location +of the office in the Chicago Tribune Tower was kept from the +membership; all they were given was the post office box number. As +soon as he collected enough material from the _Daily Worker_ and other +Communist publications, he sent agents to call on the gullible +businessmen with horrendous stories of the Muscovites now on the high +seas on their way to capture the American Government. The salesmen +collected and in turn got forty per cent of the pickings. + +When Jung heard that William Dudley Pelley was making money on the +Jew-and-Catholic scare and that others like Edward H. Hunter of the +Industrial Defense Association were talking with the German Consul +General about getting money from Germany for propaganda, he got busy +peddling "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," long discredited as +forgeries. Armed with these, Jung's high pressure salesmen scoured the +country, collecting shekels from Christian businessmen and getting +their forty per cent commissions. + +It was not long before Jung, Pelley and others were working in full +swing with secret Nazi agents sent into this country for propaganda +and espionage purposes. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] Subsequently changed to "Friends of the New Germany" and then to the +current "German-American Bund." + +[7] Still functioning on a minor scale. The Fifth Column has since these +early beginnings established much more efficient groups. + +[8] Following passage of the new 1938 law requiring all foreign agents +to register, Orgell registered with the State Department as a German +agent. + +[9] He now lives at Great Kills, Staten Island, N.Y. + + + + +VII + +_Nazi Spies and American "Patriots"_ + + +Once the spadework was done by the early Nazi agents sent into the +United States, the web rapidly embraced native fascists, racketeering +"patriots" and deluded Americans who swallowed their propaganda. When +Japan joined the Rome-Berlin axis, espionage directed against American +naval and military forces became one of the major interests of the +foreign agents, especially on the West Coast. + +Some five years ago, after the McCormick Congressional Committee +investigation into Nazi activities turned up a number of +propagandists, there was a lull in their activity until the +nation-wide denunciations died out. In the meantime Goebbels again +ordered the reorganization of the entire propaganda machine in this +country. + +It was during this period that the approaching Presidential elections +presented an immediate task for the Nazis to work on. The Roosevelt +Administration was considered by the Nazis both here and in Germany as +none too friendly to Hitler, and before the election got well under +way the Nazis here, upon instructions from their local leaders who act +only upon instructions from the German Propaganda Bureau, became +active in the anti-Roosevelt campaign. Both Nazi agents and +"patriotic" American groups working with Nazi agents (without much +money after the Congressional Committee's exposés) suddenly found +themselves possessed of more than enough capital with which to +operate. Some of the money came from the Nazis and some from +anti-Roosevelt forces. + +One of the most vicious of the anti-Roosevelt propaganda mediums was +established by Nazi agents in a carefully hidden printing plant. + + [Illustration: Anti-Semitic anti-Roosevelt handbill issued by the + American White Guard in California.] + +No one who got off on the sixth floor at 325 W. Ohio St., Chicago, and +entered the John Baumgarth's Specialty Company, would have suspected +anything out of the ordinary about the place. It looked just like +hundreds of other business firms where pale girls and anemic-looking +men made calendars. + +People came up on the ancient elevator, attended to their affairs at +the desks in front of the door, and left. Very few of them ever went +behind the enormous piles of cardboard and paper which almost +obstructed the passage to the right of the desks. But if you turned +into this passage and then turned to the left, you came upon a wooden +partition. Unless you were watching for it you would think it a wall. + +There was no indication of what was behind the partition. There was +only a shiny Yale lock in a door carefully hidden from the eyes of +casual visitors. If you knew nothing about it and tried to open the +door, you would find it locked. If you knocked or banged on it, there +would be no answering sign from the other side, and the young man +operating the cutting machine alongside the partition would merely +stare at you blankly. + +But if you knocked three times quickly, paused for a split second and +then knocked once more, the door would be opened immediately. Without +the proper signal all the knocking in the world would not help, for +this was the entrance to the carefully guarded publication rooms of +the _American Gentile_ and the headquarters for Nazi anti-democratic +activities in the Middle West. But even more guarded than the location +of the printing plant were the goings and comings of the paper's +editor, Captain Victor DeKayville and his financial backer, Charles +O'Brien. + +This brings me to two of the leading Nazi agents in the United States, +one of whom originally started the newspaper. Certainly none of the +American suckers who gave them money to spread pro-Nazi propaganda +knew that both were masquerading under false names and that one of +them is an ex-convict. + + +Those social leaders in Chicago and San Francisco, whose doors were +always open to the handsome, dashing Prince Peter Kushubue with his +sad eyes and his talk of how the Bolsheviki had confiscated his vast +estates and family jewels in Old Russia, may be interested to learn +that his Highness, the Prince, is really--well, let me give a brief +sketch of his activities before he became a Nazi agent: + +In 1922, a Russian emigré, born in Petrograd and christened Peter +Afanassieff or Aphanassieff, came to the United States seeking his +fortune, preferably in the form of a wealthy heiress. As an ordinary +run-of-the-mill Afanassieff, he was just an unemployed White Russian +looking for a job and it didn't take him long to discover that in this +democratic country heiresses and their doting papas go nuts over +titles. So overnight Peter Afanassieff blossomed out into Prince Peter +Kushubue; and as a Prince whose wealth had been confiscated by the +Bolsheviki, the doors of San Francisco society opened to him. + +Afanassieff just barely missed marrying a wealthy heiress on the West +Coast, and in his despondence he tried his hand at a little forgery. +But he picked the wrong outfit to practice penmanship on. He forged a +United States Treasury check and when the federal men got after him he +fled to Chicago. He was picked up and on November 29, 1929, he found +himself before a U.S. Commissioner who ordered his return to San +Francisco. On December 19 of the same year he pleaded guilty before +Federal Judge F.J. Kerrigan and was given a year and a half. At the +trial he admitted to being just an ordinary Afanassieff and served his +sentence under that name. + +When he came out he alternated between being Prince Kushubue and an +ordinary Afanassieff and then, because the 1930 crash had kicked the +bottom out of the market for foreign titles, he picked himself a good +solid American name: Armstrong. He said it was his mother's maiden +name. For convenience we'll call him Armstrong from now on. + +When he arrived in Chicago in 1933, he met some White Russians who +were working with Harry A. Jung on an altogether new translation of +the "Protocols." Jung planned to publish and distribute the forgeries +in order to scare the wits out of his Christian suckers, but changed +his mind when he discovered he could buy them cheaper and resell at a +higher price. Jung, in turn, introduced Armstrong to Nazi agents. + +Jung and the ex-convict hit it up. Before long Armstrong became Jung's +secret agent No. 31 (Jung is No. 1 and always signs his letters to +agents with that number. His agents, too, sign only their numbers. +They are not supposed even to write the number but every once in a +while an agent slips up and scribbles a postscript in his own +handwriting. A reproduction of one of No. 31's reports to the No. 1 +Guy appears on the opposite page.) + +It was not long after Jung introduced Armstrong to Nazi agents that +the White Russian decided that he could work the racket himself. He +began to meet secretly with Nazi agents without telling Jung about it. +Their favorite meeting place was at Von Thenen's Tavern, 2357 Roscoe +St., Chicago. Present at these meetings, usually called by Fritz +Gissibl, head of the "Friends of the New Germany,"[10] were Armstrong, +Captain Victor DeKayville, J.K. Leibl (who organized an underground +Nazi clique in South Bend, Ind.), Oscar Pfaus, Nick Mueller, Toni +Mueller, Jose Martini, Franz Schaeffer and Gregor Buss. When Gissibl +couldn't attend, his right-hand man Leibl acted for him. + +In March, 1936, Armstrong and the others decided to establish a +"National Alliance" to aid in Nazi work. They decided to use the +utmost secrecy lest what they were doing and who were behind it, leak +out. They met only in private homes and so careful were they that the +host of one meeting would not be told where the next meeting was to be +held. Only a picked handful of the most trusted Nazi agents were +invited. + +The first meeting was held at Bockhold's home, 1235 Wave-land Ave., +Chicago; the second at the home of Mrs. Emma Schmid, 4710 Winthrop +Ave., Chicago. To the second meeting they invited C.O. Anderson of 601 +Diversey Parkway, Chicago. He was listed by the Nazis and the White +Russians as a good sucker because he had contributed money to Jung. + + [Illustration: Letter written by secret agent No. 31 (Peter + Afanassieff, _alias_ Prince Kushubue, _alias_ Peter V. Armstrong) + to No. 1 (Harry A. Jung).] + + [Illustration: Letter showing contact between Peter V. Armstrong + (the White Russian ex-convict Peter Afanassieff) and German + publishers of anti-Semitic literature.] + +The White Russians and the Nazi agents then decided to start a +publishing business as the first step to attract followers. They +issued a paper called the _Gentile Front_. They were extremely +careful to keep the editorial and publication addresses secret. All +mail was sent only to Post Office Box No. 526 in the old Chicago Post +Office. The company was named the Patriotic Publishing Co. and with +the utmost secrecy editorial offices were established at 5 S. Wabash +in Chicago and the paper printed in the basement at 4233 N. Kildare +where the Merrimac Press functioned. + +Subsequently, to throw anyone who might be watching them off the +trail, they changed the name of the publishing company to the Right +Cause Publishing Co. and issued an avalanche of Nazi propaganda. It +was through this secretly organized and secretly functioning +propaganda center that Harry A. Jung, ultra-"patriot," distributed +printed attacks on Roosevelt just before the Presidential election. + + +The _American Gentile_, backed by Nazi money, published the most +insane rantings imaginable. But when one is inclined to dismiss them +as insanity, one remembers that it was the same sort of stuff Hitler +used in winning millions of bewildered Germans to his banner. The +pre-election issue (October, 1936) of the _Gentile_ will serve as an +illustration of what they published and distributed through the United +States mails: + +Former Congressman Louis T. McFadden[11] died on October 1 from a +stroke. He was sixty years old. The _American Gentile_, however, +implied that he had been murdered by Jews; Senator Bronson Cutting +(killed in an airplane crash) also was murdered by Jews. Huey Long was +murdered by Jews. Walter A. Liggett, the newspaper editor, was +murdered by Jews, and it was an international ring of Jewish bankers +who hired Booth to murder Abraham Lincoln. + +Of course it was crazy, but the coal digger in Kentucky or the +bedeviled farmer in the Middle West who couldn't pay his taxes or the +unemployed worker in an industrial center who couldn't find a job did +not know history any too well nor understand the workings of the +economic system; and when they were told by newspapers brought to them +by the United States Government mails that their economic difficulties +were due to a Jewish-Communist plot, that Roosevelt was a Jew and was +controlled by Jews and Communists, some of them were prone to believe +it. With this irresponsible propaganda anti-semitism grew. Men and +women were attracted to the Nazi web without dreaming of the forces +disseminating the propaganda of the motives behind them. + + +The most capable of those drawn into the Nazi propaganda machine were +chosen for more serious work. Some were used for propaganda; others +were given definite espionage assignments. The espionage and +propaganda divisions of the Nazi machine in this country are separate +bodies. They overlap only in serving as a recruiting ground. + +The smuggling of anti-democratic propaganda off Nazi ships entering +American ports was exposed by the McCormick Congressional Committee, +but it stopped only for a brief period. The Nazi ships which bring in +propaganda also bring secret instructions to agents here and take back +their reports. To eliminate tell-tale evidence, Dr. George Gyssling, +Nazi Consul in Los Angeles, has paid out cash to leaders of the German +propaganda machine on the West Coast. Affidavits to this effect are in +my possession. + +The headquarters for the West Coast propaganda machine which dabbles a +little in espionage, is the _Deutsches Haus_, 634 W. 15th Street, Los +Angeles. The building is supposed to be merely a meeting place for +German-Americans and sympathizers of the Hitler regime. Actually its +functions are far more sinister. + +The _Deutsches Haus_, before it was turned into a center of Nazi +activity, had been a typical Los Angeles home. When the Nazis took it +over, they ripped out several of the front rooms and turned it into a +barn-like affair with a skylight overhead and a raised platform from +which speakers sing the praises of Hitler and fascism. In the rear +part of the hall is a combined bar and restaurant where the +German-Americans drink their beer and whiskies and plot the smuggling +of propaganda from Nazi ships and the carrying on of espionage against +American military and naval forces. + +I use the word "plot" for precisely what it means. From this house, +naturalized American citizens and native Americans direct espionage +and propaganda activities paid for by a foreign government and +designed against the peace and security of the United States. + +The leader of this group, Hermann Schwinn, was appointed by Minister +of Propaganda Goebbels in Germany and is the recipient of personal +letters of praise from Adolf Hitler for his work. Schwinn is a +naturalized citizen,[12] a comparatively young man in his early +thirties, ruddy-faced and with a thin, quivering mustache on his upper +lip. This little Führer's office is just off the meeting hall and +adjoins the small bookstore where the purchaser can get pamphlets, +books, and newspapers attacking democracy. + +When I called upon Schwinn at the Nazi headquarters and introduced +myself, he smiled amiably and granted my request for an interview. The +German-American Bund, he explained immediately (the reorganized +Friends of the New Germany), is now a patriotic organization, +consisting only of American citizens. + +The German-American Bund, Schwinn continued as we seated ourselves in +his office, was now a "patriotic organization striving to create among +Americans a better understanding of Nazi Germany, to combat anti-Nazi +propaganda and the boycott against Germany, and to fight Communism." +He took about ten minutes to explain their peaceful objectives and +their great love for the United States. + +"Everything is America for the Americans and to fight all alien +theories and interests?" I asked, summing up his explanation. + +"That's right," he beamed. + +"Does any propaganda come from Germany to help save America for the +Americans?" + +"No, sir!" he said. "We have nothing to do with Germany; we are +Americans first. Mr. Dickstein[13] says that there is propaganda +coming, but he was never able to prove any of his statements." + +"Then how does propaganda like _World Service_ from Erfurt, Germany, +get into this country?" + +"Oh, I get it," he said casually. "Anyone can subscribe to it for a +dollar and a half a year. We get two or three copies around here--by +subscription, of course." + +"There must be a lot of subscribers in the United States for I've seen +a great many copies. I thought that perhaps it comes in batches from +Germany for distribution here so members of the Nazi groups in the +United States could use it to help save America for the Americans." + +"No," he smiled. "It's all a subscription matter." + +"I see. Do you know Captain George Trauernicht?" + +Schwinn shot a startled glance at me and nodded slowly. "Yes," he +said, "he's Captain of the Hapag Line ship 'Oakland.'" + +"Do you ever visit him?" + +"Yes; he was here last week." + +"Doesn't he bring batches of _World Service_ and other propaganda for +you every time he comes into port?" + +"No," Schwinn said sharply. "The visits I pay him are purely social. +Just to drink a glass of good German beer." + +"Do you usually pay social visits carrying a brief case?" + +"Now, wait a minute," he protested. "Don't write down the answer until +I think." + +I stopped typing on his office machine which he had permitted me to +use to take verbatim notes of the interview and waited while he +thought. After a lengthy silence I added: + +"You had a brief case on Thursday when you visited him." + +He continued thinking for a little longer and then said that he +thought he had had a brief case on that trip. + +"But why do you ask me that?" he demanded. "There was nothing in that +brief case." + +"Sure there was. The brief case always contains reports you send back +to Germany and instructions from Germany are brought to you by Captain +Trauernicht as well as other captains of German ships docking here and +in San Diego." + +"I have never taken off propaganda nor given nor received reports," +Schwinn insisted. "Somebody told you something and you've got it all +wrong." + +"Suppose I mention a few instances. At four o'clock on Monday +afternoon, March 9, 1936, your beer-drinking friend, Captain +Trauernicht, waited for you at the gangplank of his boat--for your +'social' visit. What he wanted was the package of sealed reports from +Nazi agents throughout the United States which you were bringing in +your brief case. In due time you arrived and gave him the reports. +Then you started on a drinking spree--" + +"I don't know what you're talking about," Schwinn interrupted. + +"Maybe I can refresh your memory. That was the evening the Captain +took a lady from Beverly Hills, to the first mate's cabin--remember? +You know, the lady who lives on North Crescent Drive--shall I mention +her name?" + +Schwinn's face turned an apoplectic red and he became quiet. + +"On Monday, February 10, 1936," I continued. "Reinhold Kusche, leader +of the O.D. unit in your organization and a 'patriotic' naturalized +American citizen, was on board the steamer 'Elbe' docked in Los +Angeles harbor. He telephoned to one of your Nazi agents, Albert +Voigt, that the Captain was sailing at five o'clock for Antwerp and +was furious because the agents' reports had not yet been delivered to +him. Kusche told Voigt to bring the reports in a hurry--which Voigt +promptly did. + +"On Tuesday evening, May 12, 1936, the Captain of the Nazi ship +'Schwaben', which had just arrived from Antwerp, Belgium, came to your +office and handed you a sealed package of orders and propaganda. He +laid it on your desk in this room. The package contained copies of +_World Service_--which is obtainable, you remember, only by +subscription at a dollar and a half a year." + +"It is not true--" Schwinn interrupted excitedly. + +"I have a copy from the batch he brought to you. But let's continue. +On Monday, June 8, 1936, you yourself went to the Nazi ship 'Weser' +and gave the captain secret reports to take back to Germany and left +with secret orders he had brought over--orders sealed in brown, manila +paper[14]--and a large package of _Fichte-Bund_ propaganda. I have a +copy from that batch, too." + +Schwinn stared at me and then smiled. "You can't prove anything," he +said with assurance. + +"I have affidavits about all these items and more--affidavits from men +on board the Nazi ships." + +"It's impossible!" he exclaimed. "No German on the ship would dare to +sign an affidavit!" + +"But I have them," I repeated. + +"You intend to publish them?" he asked, a cunning look appearing in +his eyes. + +His eagerness to discover who had given me affidavits was funny and I +laughed. "I'll publish the information contained in them," I +explained. "The names of the signers will be given only to an American +governmental or judicial body which may look into your 'patriotic' +activities. But let's get on. Do you know the Nazi Consul in Los +Angeles--Dr. George Gyssling?" + +He sat silently for a moment as if hesitating whether to speak. + +"Don't be afraid to talk," I said. "The Consul isn't. You know, of +course, that he does not like you?" + +A deep red flush suffused his face. "It's mutual!" he said. "I know he +talks--" + +Throughout the interview Schwinn tried almost pathetically, despite +his obvious dislike of Gyssling, to cover up the Consul's interference +in American affairs. When I told Schwinn I had affidavits showing that +Rafael Demmler, President of the Steuben Society of Los Angeles, got +two hundred dollars in April, 1936, from the Nazi Consul to help +maintain the _Deutsches Haus_ as a center of Nazi propaganda, he shook +his head bewilderedly; and when I pointed out that he himself got one +hundred and forty-five dollars in cash from the Nazi Consul on +Tuesday, April 28, 1936, to cover expenses incurred by Schwinn in the +effort to bring the German-American groups together for the better +dissemination of Nazi propaganda, his face turned alternately white +and red and finally he exploded: + +"Did Gyssling tell you that?" + +"I'm not saying who told it to me. But let's get on with some of your +other 'patriotic' activities. On Thursday, June 18, 1936, you visited +Captain Trauernicht in company with Count von Bülow--" + +For the first time since the interview began Schwinn sat upright in +his chair as if I had struck him. All the other subjects had left him +slightly disturbed but still with an obvious sense that he was not on +particularly dangerous ground. But at the mention of Von Bülow's name +a look of actual fear spread over his face. + +"On that day," I continued, "you and the Count went directly to the +Captain's cabin where you handed over your reports--" + +"What are you getting at?" Schwinn demanded sharply. + +"I'm getting at the Count. What do you know about him?" + +"Nothing. I know nothing about him. I've met him, that's all." + +"Have you ever visited his home at Point Loma,[15] San Diego?" + +Schwinn stared at me without answering. + +"Have you ever been there?" I repeated. + +"Yes," he said slowly. + +"Did you ever observe how, through his study windows, you could see +almost everything going on at the American naval base--" + +"I have nothing to say," Schwinn interrupted excitedly. + +Among the men sent here directly by Rudolf Hess, Hitler's right-hand +man, is a former German-American businessman named Meyerhofer. This +Nazi came here with special instructions from Hess, a personal friend +of his, to reorganize the Nazi machine in the United States. He +arrived early in 1935 posing as a businessman. After consultations +with Nazi leaders in New York, including the Nazi Consul General, he +went to Detroit to confer with Fritz Kuhn,[16] national head of the +German-American Bund. From Detroit he went to Chicago where he held +more conferences with Nazi agents and then went directly to Los +Angeles for conferences with Schwinn, Von Bülow and other secret +agents operating in the United States. Meyerhofer's mission was not +only to reorganize the propaganda machine but to try to place it on a +self-supporting basis so that in the event of war when funds from +Germany would be cut off, an efficient Nazi machine could continue +functioning. + +It was with this knowledge in mind that I asked Schwinn what he knew +about Meyerhofer. At the mention of his name the Nazi leader for the +West Coast again showed a flash of fear. He hesitated a little longer +than usual and then said in a low voice, "He is a member of our +organization. He came from Germany about thirty or forty years ago." +Suddenly he added, "He's an American citizen." + +"I know he's an American citizen. But are you sure he didn't come from +Germany--on his latest trip--in January of last year?" + +Schwinn smiled a little wryly. "He might have," he said in the same +low tone. + +"He's a personal friend of Rudolf Hess--" + +"Listen!" Schwinn exclaimed. "You're on the wrong track!" + +"Maybe; but what's his business here?" + +"He's a businessman!" + +"What's his business?" + +Schwinn shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know," he said and then with +growing excitement, "I tell you you're on the wrong track!" + +"Then what are you so excited about?" + +"Because you're on the wrong track--" + +"Okay. I'm on the wrong track and you know nothing about Nazi spies. +Do you know of the visits paid by the Japanese Consul in Los Angeles +to Nazi ships when they come into port and of his conferences with +Nazi captains--" + +"The Japanese! We have nothing to do with the Japanese. We are a +patriotic group--" + +"Yes, I know. What do you know about Schneeberger?" + +Schwinn answered with an "M-m-m-m." His jaw bones showed against the +ruddy flesh of his cheeks. He stared up at the ceiling. "He was a +Tyrolian peasant boy," he said without looking at me. "A boy +traveling around the world; you know, just chiseling his way around--" + +"Just a bum, eh?" + +"That's it," he agreed quickly. "Just a bum." + +"What would your connections be with bums? Do you usually associate +with Tyrolian bums who are chiseling their way around the world?" + +"Oh, he just came here like so many other people. He wanted money; so +I gave him a little help and he went to San Francisco and Oakland. He +vanished. I haven't any idea where he might be now. Maybe he's in +Chicago now." + +"He couldn't possibly be in Japan now, could he?" + +"He spoke of going to Japan," Schwinn admitted. + +"You saw him off on a Japanese training ship which the Japanese +Government sent here from the Canal Zone, didn't you?" + +"I don't know," he said defiantly. "I know nothing about him." + +"The treaty between Japan and Germany providing for exchange of +information about Communists was signed November 25, 1936. But in +September, 1936, Schneeberger told you he was leaving on a Japanese +training ship for Japan. No training ship was expected on the West +Coast at that time by the United States port authorities, and yet a +Japanese training ship appeared--ordered here from the Canal Zone. It +was on this ship that Schneeberger left. Apparently, then, the Nazis +and the Japanese had already been working together--and you were +cooperating because you took Schneeberger around. You took him to +Count von Bülow's home at Point Loma, overlooking the American naval +base. You know that Schneeberger was not broke because he was spending +money freely--" + +"He was broke," Schwinn interrupted weakly. + +"If he was so broke, how do you account for his carrying around an +expensive camera and always having plenty of film with which to +photograph American naval and military spots?" + +"I don't know. Maybe he carried the camera around to hock in case he +went broke." + +The absurdity of the excuse was so patent that I laughed. Schwinn +smiled a little. + +"All right. What do you know about a man named Maeder?" + +Again that long, drawn-out "M-m-m-m." A long pause and Schwinn said, +"Maeder is an American citizen, I believe." + +"Yes; you are, too. But what's his business in this country?" + +"I don't know," Schwinn said helplessly. "I really don't know." + +"You know nothing about his activities or observations of American +naval and military bases? Do you usually take in members without +knowing anything about them?" + +"Sometimes we do and sometimes we do not--" + +"But orders were sent from Germany to make this an American +organization--" + +Schwinn nodded without admitting it verbally. + +"And since you throw out all Germans who are not American citizens, +you check with the Consul General in New York as to whether they are +fit--" + +"We have nothing to do with the Consul General--" + +"What happened to Willi Sachse who used to be a member here?" + +"He is supposed to have gone back to Germany." + +"Have you heard from him from Germany?" + +"No; I haven't heard since he left." + +"You received a letter recently from him from San Francisco where he +is watching foreign vessels--" + +"Oh," said Schwinn, raising his hands in a helpless gesture, "I know +you have spies in my organization." + +We talked a little longer--of visits he made to Nazi agents in the +Middle West and in New York, of secret conferences with propagandists +and spies. But he refused to do any more than shrug his shoulders at +all new questions. + +"I have said too much already," he said. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] Gissibl left for Stuttgart, Germany, and leadership was taken over +by his brother, Peter. + +[11] Before McFadden died, I published evidence that while he was a +member of Congress he worked with Nazi agents in this country. + +[12] As this book went to press, the U.S. Government had just begun +action to revoke Schwinn's citizenship, claiming that he had obtained it +by making false statements. + +[13] Congressman Samuel Dickstein. The McCormick Congressional Committee +was frequently referred to as the "Dickstein Committee" because +Dickstein had introduced the resolution for the investigation. + +[14] During the trial of the four Nazi spies in New York the Federal +prosecutor brought out that they also carried orders sealed in brown, +manila paper. + +[15] Von Bülow has since sold his home and moved into the El Cortez +Hotel in San Diego. + +[16] At that time working for Henry Ford. + + + + +VIII + +_Henry Ford and Secret Nazi Activities_ + + +One of the Chief Nazi propagandists in the United States recently ran +in the United States Senate primaries in Kansas and was almost +nominated. He is Gerald B. Winrod, who poses as a Protestant minister +but has no affiliations with any reputable church. + +Winrod, even before he tried to get into the Senate, was one of the +most brazen of the Nazis' Fifth Column operating in this country. He +has held secret consultations with officials in the German Embassy in +Washington and carries on his propaganda under Fritz Kuhn's direction. + +Shortly after Winrod returned from a mysterious trip to Germany and +held an equally mysterious long consultation at the Nazi Embassy in +this country (1935), he organized the _Capitol News and Feature +Service_, with offices at 209 Kellogg Building, Washington. The "news +service" supplied smaller papers throughout the land with "impartial +comments" on the national scene. The _Service_ was edited by Dan +Gilbert, a San Diego newspaperman, and the material was sent free of +charge (as is the material sent to the Latin American countries from +Germany and Italy). It was of course, deliberately calculated to +spread pro-Hitler sentiment and propaganda. + +Few who read Winrod's publications realize the extent of his +activities. On March 1, 1937, Senator Joseph T. Robinson addressed the +United States Senate on what appeared to him to be "unfair propaganda" +carried on by Winrod against President Roosevelt's proposed +reorganization of the judiciary system. The Senator stated that he +could not understand why the issues should be deliberately falsified +by a gentleman of the cloth--that it reminded him of the old Ku Klux +Klan tactics. + +The Senator did not know that Winrod's propaganda against Roosevelt +was only part of a propaganda campaign cunningly and brazenly +organized by Nazis in this country in an effort to defeat a man who, +they felt, was not friendly to them. In this campaign, Nazi agents +worked openly and secretly with a few unscrupulous members of the +Republican Party in an effort to defeat Roosevelt. + +Several years ago Winrod was a poverty-stricken man living at 145 N. +Green Street, Wichita, Kansas. He called himself a minister but all +church bodies have repudiated him. Without a church, he did a little +evangelistic preaching and lived off collections made from his +audience. It was a precarious livelihood and often the "Reverend" did +not have enough money to buy even ordinary necessities. + +Records in several Wichita department stores tell the story of the +evangelist's poverty before an angel came to visit him. All the +storekeepers with whom Winrod dealt requested that their names be +withheld, but signified their willingness to present their records to +any governmental body which might be interested in the sudden wealth +he acquired after he became an intense Hitler propagandist. In the +days of his poverty Winrod, the records show, could afford to buy only +the cheapest furniture, the cheapest clothes, and pay for them on the +installment plan in weekly payments ranging from fifty cents to two or +three dollars a week. + +I am reproducing with this chapter several of the installment cards. +The reader will notice that as late as 1934 Winrod was paying at the +rate of one dollar a week. It was in this period that Nazi agents in +the United States were carrying on their intensive campaign, and it +was also in this period that Winrod began to harangue his audiences +about the "menace of the Jews and the Catholics." + + [Illustration: Account cards for the Reverend Gerald B. Winrod in + a Wichita department store, showing his straitened financial + circumstances during the early thirties.] + +Then one day, the Reverend Gerald B. Winrod suddenly found himself +possessed of enough money to go to Germany. When he came back in +February, 1935, he had new suit cases, new clothes and a fat check +book. The records in the Wichita department stores where he had been +getting credit for clothes and furniture show that after his return +from Germany he paid all his debts in lump sums--by check. Then he +became a publisher. + +In his newspaper, _The Revealer_, he published a report on his trip to +Europe, but did not mention where he got the money for the jaunt. The +report (February 15, 1935) told of his discovery that the German +people loved Hitler and that only "Jewish influence in high circles of +certain governments is making it impossible for Germany to carry on +normal trade and financial relations with other countries." + +In this period of his new-found prosperity he established contacts +with Nazi agents and pro-fascists like Harry A. Jung of the American +Vigilant Intelligence Federation, Colonel Edwin Emerson, James True +and a host of other patrioteers. + +Before the Presidential election he made another trip to Germany. When +he returned, he enlarged his distribution apparatus and was apparently +important enough for high Nazi officials visiting the United States to +meet with him. One of these was Hans von Reitenkranz, who came quietly +to the United States as Hitler's personal representative to arrange +for oil purchases--oil which Germany needed badly for her factories +and especially for her growing war machine. + +Von Reitenkranz is a friend of Professor Kurt Sepmeier of the +University of Wichita. He introduced Winrod to the Professor. They +became friendly. When I was in Wichita making inquiries about the +Reverend Winrod, I constantly came across the Professor's trail. Both +he and Winrod had been meeting regularly but with an effort at +secrecy. + +In January, 1937, after several meetings with Professor Sepmeier, +Winrod went to Washington. I also went to Washington and found that +the Reverend was calling at the German Embassy. On one of his visits +he remained inside for an hour and eighteen minutes. Whom he saw or +what he discussed I do not know; but immediately after this long +visit, the _News and Feature Service_ was organized with money enough +to send its items out free of charge to the papers that would accept +them. + +Gilbert, who headed the _Service_, was for many years the personal +representative of William Dudley Pelley, leader of the Silver Shirts. +The Nazis had been trying to get the Silver Shirts to cooperate with +them in a fascist "united front" and the appointment of Gilbert was +the first indication that a friendly cooperation had been established. + + [Illustration: Sample of the "Capital News and Feature Service," + in the establishment and distribution of which the Reverend + Gerald B. Winrod had a hand.] + +Winrod had been in constant communication with Pelley, and Pelley had +conferred several times with Schwinn. The Nazis were eager to get a +native American body into the organization so they would have an +American "front." + +Gilbert opened offices in Washington and, fearful lest their +location become known, rented Post Office Box No. 771, Ben Franklin +Station, for use as a mailing address. After the first issue had been +sent out, Winrod and his agents canvassed prominent industrialists for +donations to support the "news service" on the grounds that it was +furthering religious activities and fighting Communism. The money +collected was actually used to carry on anti-democratic propaganda. A +number of industrialists contributed. I have a list of them, but since +there is no conclusive evidence that they knew the money was being +spent by Nazi agents, I shall not publish the names. I mention it +merely as an illustration of how wealthy men are victimized by +racketeers with pleas of "patriotism" and "public service." Harry A. +Jung did the same thing by getting money from rich Jews "to fight +Communism" and from rich gentiles "to fight the menace of the Jew." + + [Illustration: Letter from a small-town newspaper showing the + kind of confusion caused by the "Capitol News and Feature + Service."] + +With the first issue of the _Capitol News and Feature Service_, the +following announcement was mailed to the editors of rural weeklies: + +"Good Morning, Mr. Editor! _Capitol News and Feature Service_ herewith +delivers three priceless articles, fresh from the Nation's capitol. +Use them without cost. You will hear from us each week. Watch for +these interesting articles." + +An examination of the "priceless articles" showed that they were +designed primarily to attack American democracy. + +Since his return from Germany and his conferences at the Nazi Embassy, +Winrod has made frequent trips into Mexico where he has met with +Mexican fascists--especially with leaders of the Mexican Gold Shirts +which were organized by Hermann Schwinn. Again we discover the tie-up +between fascist organizations in the United States and those to the +south of us. + + +When the Nazis reorganized their propaganda machine several years ago +and established smuggling headquarters on the West Coast, propaganda +taken off Nazi ships docking in San Diego and Los Angeles included +material printed in Spanish for the special use of General Nicholás +Rodriguez, head of the Gold Shirts. + +The Spanish as well as the English material was taken to the +_Deutsches Haus_ in Los Angeles and turned over to Schwinn, who +forwarded the batches to Rodriguez. The contact man between Schwinn +and the head of the fascist movement in Mexico is a native American +named Henry Douglas Allen of San Diego. Allen, under the pretext of +being a mining engineer and interested in prospecting in Mexico, went +repeatedly into the neighboring country with the smuggled propaganda +and delivered it to Rodriguez' agents. + +Since native Americans, especially if they say they wish to prospect, +can travel across the international boundary into Mexico as often as +they please without arousing suspicion, Allen was chosen as the +liaison man between Nazi agents in the United States and Rodriguez. As +I said earlier, the Nazis tried from the beginning to get an American +"front" and to draw as many Americans into it as possible--obviously +strategic preparation for future work more serious than mere +propaganda. Hence Allen was instructed to become active in the Silver +Shirt movement. He organized Down Town Post No. 47-10 and established +Silver Shirt recruiting headquarters in Room 693 at 730 South Grand +Ave., Los Angeles. + +In August, 1936, when a lot of Nazi and anti-Roosevelt money was being +shelled out in efforts to defeat Roosevelt, Allen became extremely +active. While Pelley was out of town, he was instructed to work with +Kenneth Alexander, Pelley's right-hand man. Alexander was formerly a +still-photographer at United Artists Studios. The two opened offices +in the Broadway Arcade Building and on October 1, 1935, moved to the +Lankersheim Building at Third Street near Spring, Los Angeles. + +Rodriguez, after he was given assurances of Nazi aid, worked not only +with Nazi agents in this country but also with Julio Brunet, manager +of the Ford factory in Mexico City. + +The earliest documentary record I have of their tie-up is a letter +Rodriguez wrote to Ford's manager on September 27, 1934, on Gold Shirt +stationery. The letter merely asks Brunet to give jobs to two "worthy +young men" and is written in a manner that shows Rodriguez and Brunet +are rather close. + +By February 7, 1935, Rodriguez and the Ford executive in Mexico had +become sufficiently intimate for the fascist leader to express his +appreciation of Brunet's placing Gold Shirts in the plant. His letter +addressed to the manager of the Ford Company follows: + + We have been informed by our delegate, Senora N.M. Colunga, that + she was very well treated by you and that in addition you + informed her that our request for work for some of our comrades + who needed it has also been heard. Not doubting but that this + will be fulfilled, A.R.M. [the Gold Shirts] sends you the most + expressive thanks for having seen in you the recognition of one + of the greatest obligations of humanity to Mexicanism. + +On November 19, 1935, shortly before the Gold Shirts felt they were +powerful enough to attempt the overthrow of the Mexican Government and +the establishment of a fascist dictatorship, Rodriguez wrote to the +manager of the Ford plant, asking for the two ambulances which had +been promised the fascists by the Ford manager. Rodriguez had +organized his attempted Putsch carefully, with a women's ambulance +corps to care for the wounded in the expected fighting. The letter, +again translated almost literally, follows: + + + Sr. Manager of the Ford Company Nov. 19, 1935. + City + Highly Esteemed Señor: + + This will be delivered to you personally by Sr. General Juan + Alvarez C., who comes with the object of ascertaining if that + company would be able to supply two ambulances which they had + already offered, for the transportation of the Women's Sanitary + Brigade on the 20th day of this month at 8 A.M. + + Thanking you in advance for the references, I am happy to repeat + that I am at your command. Affectionately and attentively, S.S. + + NICHOLÁS RODRIGUEZ C. + Supreme Commander. + + [Illustration: Letter from General Nicholás Rodriguez, Mexican + fascist leader, to the Ford manager in Mexico City, soliciting + employment for two protégés.] + +In the street fighting that followed the attempted fascist Putsch a +number were killed and wounded. It was after this fight that Rodriguez +was exiled. + +I am reproducing some of these letters from carbon copies, initialed +by Rodriguez, which were in his files. Why he initials carbon copies +I don't know, but I have a stack of his correspondence with Nazi +agents and almost all of his carbons are initialed. + +On October 4, 1936, Allen wrote to the exiled fascist leader. +Ostensibly the letter invited him to address the Silver Shirts. +Actually it was for a special conference about "matters of vital +importance to us both." This letter was written when Schwinn was +holding conferences with Pelley to merge forces in a fascist united +front, and when Schneeberger was preparing to leave for Japan on a +training ship ordered up from the Canal Zone by the Japanese to take +him on board. The letter follows: + + Dear General Rodriguez: + + Upon receipt of this letter will you kindly communicate with me + and advise me whether it would be possible for you to come to + Los Angeles in the near future to make an address to our + organization here. We shall be glad to defray all expenses which + will include airplane both ways if you desire it. We shall also + offer you bodyguard for your protection if you deem it + necessary. Your fight is our fight and it is our desire to have + you come to Los Angeles especially to confer with us relative to + matters of vital importance to us both. I would suggest that if + you can arrange to come, you telegraph me (charges collect) upon + receipt of this letter so that I may make arrangements without + delay. + + Fraternally yours, + HENRY ALLEN. + +When I went to Mexico to look into Nazi activities, I gave a copy of +this letter to the Minister of the Interior. At that time Allen was +again in Mexico under the pretense of looking into his mining +interests, but a check showed that he had actually gone there to +confer secretly with a Mexican army man, General Iturbe. At my request +the Mexican Government looked into Allen's movements and learned that +he had entered Guaymas, center of Japanese activities, with Kenneth +Alexander, Pelley's chief aid. + +The connection between Ford's Mexican manager and General Rodriguez +might be considered an unfortunate incident for which Ford could not +be held responsible. This would be a reasonable assumption if the +Nazi-Rodriguez-Ford tie-up in Mexico were an isolated case. The facts, +however, show it is not. + + [Illustration: Letter from General Rodriguez to the Ford manager + in Mexico City. The translation is given on page 110.] + + +The national leader of the Nazi propaganda machine in this country has +been on the Ford pay roll. Kuhn was supposed to work for Ford as a +chemist, but while on Ford's pay roll he traveled around the United +States conferring with other secret Nazi agents and actively directing +Nazi work in this country. + +Ford has a highly developed and exceedingly efficient espionage system +of his own which, among other things, watches what his employees +do--even to their home life. Kuhn's activities were known to Harry +Bennett, head of the Ford secret service or "Personnel Department," as +it is called, and Bennett reports to Ford. Furthermore, Kuhn's Nazi +connections had been publicized in both the American and the Nazi +press and were no secret. Jews and Christians alike protested to Ford +about his employee's anti-democratic work while on the motor magnate's +pay roll, but Kuhn was left undisturbed to travel around organizing +Nazi groups. In 1938 Ford was given the highest medal of honor which +Hitler can give to a foreigner. No statement was ever made as to just +what Henry Ford had done for the Nazi Führer to merit the honor. + +Simultaneously with Kuhn's intensified work, Ford's confidential +secretary, William J. Cameron, became active again. Cameron was editor +of Ford's _Dearborn Independent_ when that newspaper published the +"Protocols of the Elders of Zion" after they had been proved to be +forgeries. When a nation-wide protest arose from Jews and Christians +who were shocked at seeing one of the richest and most powerful men in +the country use his wealth to disseminate race hatred, and when the +protest grew into a boycott of his cars, Ford apologized and +discontinued the newspaper. But instead of easing his editor out or +giving him some other job, he made him his confidential secretary. + + [Illustration: Letter from Henry Allen to General Rodriguez, + showing the tie-up between American and Mexican fascist + organizations.] + +When Kuhn went to work for Ford, the national headquarters of the Nazi +propaganda machine was moved to Detroit, and the anti-democratic +activities increased in intensity. Employing Nazi anti-semitism as the +bait to attract dissatisfied and bewildered elements in the +population, a new organization made its appearance: The Anglo-Saxon +Federation, headed by Ford's private secretary. Headquarters were +established in the McCormick Building in Chicago, Room 834, at 332 S. +Michigan Ave. and in the Fox Building in Detroit. + +In July, 1936, Cameron, obviously because Ford was violently +anti-Roosevelt, stepped out as head of the organization and became its +Director of Publications. When Winrod was raising money from American +industrialists to support the _Capitol News and Feature Service_, +Cameron was among the contributors. + +The Anglo-Saxon Federation began to distribute the "Protocols" again. +I bought a copy in the Detroit offices of the organization, stamped +with the name of the organization. The introduction quotes Ford as +approving of them. It states: + + Mr. Henry Ford, in an interview published in the _New York + World_. February 17, 1921, put the case for Nilus[17] tersely + and convincingly thus: + + "The only statement I care to make about the 'Protocols' is that + they fit in with what is going on. They are sixteen years old, + and they have fitted the world situation up to this time. They + fit it now." + +When Ford was on the witness stand in a libel suit some fifteen years +ago and admitted his ignorance of matters with which even grammar +school children are familiar, the country laughed. His ignorance, +however, is his own affair, but when he takes no step to curb his +personal representative from working with secret foreign agents to +undermine a friendly government, it becomes a matter, it appears to +me, of importance to the people of this country and the Government of +the United States. + + [Illustration: LEFT: American-made anti-Semitic sticker of a type + appearing with increasing frequency in recent times. RIGHT: + Title-page of the German edition of "The International Jew," by + Henry Ford, of which 100,000 copies have been distributed.] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] The man who forged the "Protocols" originally and who subsequently +confessed to having done so. + + + + +IX + +_Nazi Agents in American Universities_ + + +The universities are too important a training ground for Nazi agents +to ignore. A few professors in some of our universities have joined +the growing list of anti-democratic propagandists. Some of them are +German subjects and do not disguise their pro-Nazi bias; others carry +on their propaganda as a "scholarly analysis" of the Hitler +regime--with a fervor, however, that smacks of the paid propagandist. + +German exchange students, too, studying at some of our universities, +are active in various efforts to draw native Americans within the +sphere of Nazi influence. Some of these students came here ostensibly +to study for degrees, but devote most of their time to spreading Nazi +ideology and meeting with secret Nazi agents and military spies. Such +was Prince von Lippe of the University of Southern California. + +Von Lippe is not an American citizen as so many of the agents are. +With no visible means of support, he received expenses from a total +stranger--oddly enough, Count von Bülow whose home overlooked the +naval base in San Diego and who was constantly in conferences with +Nazi agents. It was to Count von Bülow, you recall, that Hermann +Schwinn brought Schneeberger as soon as he arrived on his way to +Japan, and von Bülow took him around while Schneeberger photographed +areas in the military and naval zone. A number of very secret +conferences were held while Schneeberger was on the West Coast, in the +home of Dr. K. Burchardi, a Los Angeles physician who visits Nazi +ships with Schwinn and von Bülow (on one occasion Schneeberger +summoned Burchardi to come with him to a Nazi ship which had just +docked in Los Angeles--and the physician dropped his work and went). + +German exchange students, when they enter this country, are under +instructions to report to the German-American Bund. On July 4, 1936, +three exchange students--a young lady and two young men--entered Los +Angeles while on a motor tour of the country. They were students at +Georgia Tech. In Los Angeles they went directly to the _Deutsches +Haus_ and presented a letter of introduction to Hermann Schwinn who +assigned them quarters at the home of Max Edgan, one of Schwinn's +lieutenants. The students then made a detailed report to Schwinn on +the political work they were carrying out at Georgia Tech. + +But the professors are the chief hope of Nazi agents attempting to +spread the idea of totalitarian government and a bit of race hatred as +the bait to attract some elements in the population. Some of the +professors and some of their activities follow briefly: + + +Professor Frederick E. Auhagen, formerly of the German Department, +Seth Low Junior College, Columbia University. + +Dr. Auhagen came to this country in 1923 and worked as a mining +engineer in Pennsylvania. From 1925 to 1927 he was with the Foreign +Department of the Equitable Trust Co.; then became connected with +Columbia University in 1927. He is not an American citizen and +constantly refers to Germany as "my native country." + +This professor is one of the leading academic apologists for Herr +Hitler in the United States. Besides carrying on his pro-Nazi +propaganda in the classroom, he does a great deal of lecturing, +sometimes appearing before the Foreign Policy Association. On one +occasion, in an address before the Men's Club of the Baptist Church at +Rockville, Long Island, he stated that Seth Low Junior College was +opened "in order to keep Hebrew faces off the campus at Columbia +University." + +Auhagen never tried to hide his sympathies with Nazism. Preceding a +debate on February 1, 1936, before the City Club of Cleveland, he gave +press interviews as a Nazi, and in the debate upheld Hitler as the +savior of Germany and world civilization. With a fervor far removed +from professorial calm, he explained that American newspaper +dispatches about the treatment of Jews and Catholics in Germany were +exaggerated. + +"As to criticism of Germany's treatment of Catholics," he said again +in Denver, Colorado on July 26, 1935, "that is not true!" + + +Professor Frederick K. Krueger, of Wittenberg college, with whom +Auhagen is rather closely identified in arranging and giving talks +about Nazis and totalitarian government, at every opportunity issues +press interviews along the same line. In them he explains that the +anti-Nazi sentiment in the United States press does not represent the +editors, but is dictated by Jews who "control the press, the motion +pictures and other organs of public opinion." + + +Because of the high scientific standing of Professor Vladimir +Karapetoff of the Cornell engineering faculty, he is listened to with +more attention and respect than are the more blatant propagandists for +the adoption of fascist tactics and principles. Shortly after Hitler +took power, the Professor started to do his share on the campus. At +first he did it subtly, but when this made little headway he began to +talk of the "growing domination of Jews in American life, politically +as well as economically" and emphasized that the large number of Jews +in the Law School and on the campus generally was becoming a problem. + +"It's the smooth-faced Jew whom we must fear," he kept repeating, "and +not the long-bearded Jewish rabbi." + +Not content with expressing personal opinions, he took to organizing +groups, addressing them on the subject of the Jew; and on one occasion +he called a special meeting of the Officer's Club with the proviso +that Jews be excluded. + + +Paul F. Douglas,[18] teacher of German, Economics and Political +Science at Green Mountain College, wrote a book, _God Among the +Germans_, which purports to be an introduction to the mind and method +of Nazism. + +I have information coming from a reputable source that Dr. Douglas was +paid by the Nazi Government to write the book. This source is +unwilling to let his name be used, but is ready to testify and lay his +information before any governmental body which will investigate the +devious methods of Nazi agents in this country. + + +There are at various universities throughout the country other +professors and instructors quite active in spreading pro-Hitler +propaganda. Some of them meet with Nazi agents closely allied to the +espionage machine. I offer only these few as illustrations of Nazi +efforts to get footholds in the American universities. + + +Along with efforts to carry on their work in the universities, Nazi +agents tried to get a foothold in the political life of the country by +finding a few Republicans who were willing to use anti-democratic +propaganda in their efforts to defeat Roosevelt during the +Presidential campaign. At no time in American history did secret +agents of a foreign power so brazenly attempt to interfere in the +internal affairs of the American people. Nor at any time in American +history did agents of a foreign government find such willing +cooperation from unscrupulous American politicians. + +Among those who worked with Hitler agents was Newton Jenkins, director +of the Coughlin-Lemke Third Party.[19] The Detroit Priest and the +Congressman were fully aware, preceding and during the campaign, that +Jenkins supported Hitler and was a Jew-baiter of the first order. They +were aware of this while they were appealing for Jewish votes. The +Radio Priest and the Congressman kept in constant touch with their +campaign manager and knew what sort of government Jenkins wanted. + +Jenkins' association with Nazis dates to the days preceding the +launching of the Presidential campaign. At that time he participated +in a secret conference held in Chicago with the object of uniting the +scattered fascist forces in the United States to form a powerful +fascist united front. Among those who attended were Walter Kappe, +Fritz Gissibl and Zahn--three active Hitler agents assigned to the +Mid-West area; William Dudley Pelley, leader of the Silver Shirts; +Harry A. Jung, the ultra-"patriot"; George W. Christians of +Chattanooga, Tenn., head of the American fascists; and several others. +The conference ended with an agreement to support a Third-Party +movement directed by Jenkins. + +Throughout the campaign Jenkins stressed an exaggerated nationalism, +advocated "party patrols" similar to Hitler's storm troops and adopted +the Nazi Jew-baiting tactics. His first public appearance with the +Nazis was on October 30, 1935, at a meeting held in Lincoln Turner +Hall, 1005 Diversey Building, Chicago. Uniformed storm troopers with +the swastika on their arm bands patrolled the room. In the course of +his talk he said: + + The trouble with this country now is due to the money powers and + Jewish politicians who control our Government. The Federal + Treasury is being controlled by a Jew, Morgenthau, and a Jew, + Eugene Meyer. The State, County and our own Municipal Government + is being controlled by Jewish politicians. Our own Mayor signs + what the Jews want him to sign. Nearly in every department of + our country and local government you will find a Jew at the head + of it. Not only under a Democratic administration but also under + a Republican administration we will find the same conditions.... + The American people must free itself from the money plunderers + who have thrown this country into the World War and also a + possibility of dragging them into the present war for private + gain and shake off their shoulders the Jewish politicians. The + Third Party promises to do both. + + +This is precisely the sort of stuff paid Nazi agents in the propaganda +division are ordered to disseminate, and this is the man Father +Coughlin and Congressman Lemke picked to direct their campaign. + + +It was a Nazi agent, Ernst Goerner of Milwaukee, who spread the story, +aided by anti-Roosevelt forces, that Frances Perkins, Secretary of +Labor, was a Jewess. The story received such wide publicity that she +had to issue a public statement giving her birth and marriage records. + +Goerner is one of the important Nazi agents in the Mid-West. He's a +bit eccentric and the Nazis sometimes have difficulty keeping him in +line, but when Schwinn made a trip East shortly before the election +campaign, he stopped off specially to see Goerner who thereupon sent a +flood of propaganda throughout the country about Secretary Perkins' +ancestry as well as charges that Roosevelt and almost all Government +officials were Jews. + + +It was after Schwinn's trip to the East that other disseminators of +anti-democratic propaganda, like Robert Edward Edmondson and James +True, came to life in a big way. One of the penniless men who suddenly +blossomed into the money after Schwinn's trip East was Olov E. +Tietzow, who used Post Office Box No. 491 in Chicago lest the fact +that he lived at 715 Aldine Ave. be discovered. + +Up until a few months before the campaign Tietzow was an unemployed +electrical engineer who had difficulty paying the three-dollar weekly +rent for his hall bed-room at the Aldine Ave. address. After Schwinn's +visit and meeting with him, Tietzow began to commute by air between +Chicago and Buffalo where he opened a branch office. + +Tietzow was tested out a little at first. He was put to work in the +offices of the Friends of the New Germany on Western Ave. and Roscoe +St., Chicago. In his spare time he worked out of 1454 Foster Ave., +Chicago. A quotation or two from some of his letters will give an +indication of his activities. On February 21, 1936, he wrote to +William Stern, Fargo, N.D., a member of the Republican National +Committee. He said in part: + + Information about the so-called fascist movement here in the + U.S.A. will be furnished by me if you so desire, together with + other data you might be interested in. An opportunity to discuss + our national problems and to lay before patriotic persons of + means and influence and before national organizations my plans + for a nationwide movement would be welcome.... + +This letter to a high Republican Party official was written after +Tietzow had outlined the contents to Toni Mueller, Nazi agent in +Chicago reporting directly to Fritz Kuhn. + +Since most of the patrioteers were opposed to the New Deal and since +some of them were already working with Nazi agents in this country, it +was not long before they were going full blast in their "Save America" +racket. The people of the United States, though they don't talk much +about it, are thoroughly patriotic in the fullest sense of the word. +To accuse anyone of not being a patriot is almost worse than telling a +man that he is a son of not quite a lady. The racketeers in patriotism +long ago discovered that people would contribute to a "patriotic +cause" if only to escape the reputation of being unpatriotic; and the +racketeers have made a nice living out of it. For some of the +patrioteers it has become a thriving business, with everybody +involved--except the suckers--getting his cut. Some of the big +"patriotic" organizations are really influential, and the small ones +are hopefully struggling along in the expectation of bigger and better +and more patriotic days when the pickings will be more than +attractive. + + [Illustration: Letter by Olov E. Tietzow, showing typical methods + of American fascists.] + +Every time I start looking into organizations with high-sounding and +impressive names, I am profoundly impressed with the accuracy of +Barnum's noted observation. Raise the cry of "patriotism" and +perfectly good Americans forget to try to find out just what the +"patriotic" activities are, and shell out without a murmur. +Industrialists particularly like the "Americanism" of the patriotic +groups because almost all of them incorporate an anti-labor policy. +The propaganda, of course, is rarely conducted as an open fight +against labor, but is put across as a fight to save America from the +Communists. + +Some of the racketeering patriotic organizations with a more or less +devout following include the National Republican Publishing Company, +Washington, D.C., the American Vigilant Intelligence Federation, +Chicago, Ill., the Paul Reveres, Chicago, Ill., the Industrial Defense +Association, Boston, Mass., the American Nationalists, Inc., New York, +N.Y. and the American Nationalist Party, Los Angeles, Calif. There are +a number of others, but these are some of the most blatant. + + +The National Republican Company, 511 11th Street, N.W., Washington, +D.C., is one of the most influential. It publishes the _National +Republic_, a journal accepted by men high in public office and by +leading industrialists as earnestly trying to inculcate "Americanism" +into Americans. + +The _National Republic_ has an amazing list of endorsers--governors, +mayors, senators, congressmen and nationally-known industrialists. The +magazine is virtually the entire organization and is dedicated "to +defending American ideals and institutions." It is headed by Walter S. +Steele, who was tied up with Harry A. Jung of the American Vigilant +Intelligence Federation before he went into business for himself. +While Steele was working with the ace of racketeers in patriotism, +the president-editor of the _National Republic_ also eked out a few +pennies by distributing the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion." Today, +however, he confines himself chiefly to fighting Communism, spreading +race hatred only when it is paid for in advertisements. Books +distributed by Nazi propagandists in furthering their anti-democratic +campaign--such books as _T.N.T._ by Colonel Edwin Hadley and _The +Conflict of the Ages_ find space in the _National Republic's_ pages. +Colonel Hadley headed the Paul Reveres which tried to organize fascist +groups on American university campuses, and _The Conflict of the Ages_ +devotes a full chapter to the Nazi "proofs" of the authenticity of the +"Protocols." + +I mention these to show the type of stuff Steele is willing to +disseminate--if he is paid for it. And by permitting the use of their +names, the sponsors, consciously or unconsciously, aid him in his +anti-American activities. + +The detailed aims of the _National Republic_ are to provide a "weekly +service to twenty-three hundred editors, to defend American +institutions against subversive radicalism; a national information +service on subversive organizations and activities; an Americanization +bureau serving schools, colleges and patriotic groups; conducted for +the public good from Washington, D.C., by nationally known leaders." + +The procedure of conducting the organization "for the public good" +includes high-pressuring the shekels from the suckers. Steele, a +former newspaperman, learned from his association with that other +arch-patriot, Jung. So when Steele established his own racket, he +found one of his early aids in former Senator Robinson of Indiana. +Robinson was closely tied up with the Ku Klux Klan. Through Robinson +and through other politicians reached with the cry "Save America," he +got a long list of prominent sponsors and gradually increased it until +now it reads like a _Who's Who_ of reactionary industrialists and +innocent politicians. With letters of introduction from Senator +Robinson, Steele's high pressure gang set out to collect in the name +of patriotism. + +The procedure was simple. Salesmen presented their letters of +introduction to the mayor of a city. The mayor was impressed with the +high "patriotic" motives and especially with the imposing list of +names sponsoring the efforts. The mayor introduced the high-pressure +fellows to other people--and the milking began. + +Let me illustrate a little more specifically: + +On March 4, 1936, Steele sent two of his ablest dollar-pullers, +Messrs. Fahr and Hamilton, into the Oklahoma oil fields where the +industrialists would like to see a minimum of 200 per cent Americanism +instilled in the public mind. Messrs. Fahr and Hamilton had letters of +introduction to Mayor T.A. Penny of Tulsa, Okla. When the salesmen +approached the Mayor, they had not only the long and imposing list of +names on the letterhead but additional letters of introduction from +ex-Governor Curley of Mass., ex-Senator Robinson of Indiana and +Congressman Martin Dies of Texas. The drummers wanted the Mayor to +introduce them to the Chairman of the Tulsa Board of Education who +could help them get funds in Tulsa and elsewhere. The funds were to be +used to place the "patriotic" magazine in the public school system in +order "to preserve this country against subversive activities, +particularly Communism." + +It was a neat circulation-getting stunt, performed without Fahr and +Hamilton telling what percentage of the take they got. + +The Mayor gave the letters of introduction. With these letters and the +excellent contacts thus established, they started down the sucker list +from W.G. Skelly, head of the Skelly Oil Co., Tulsa to Waite Phillips +of the Phillips Petroleum Co. + +Like his former colleague Harry A. Jung, Steele works on the big +industrialists by whispering confidentially that he has sources of +information about which he can't talk much but which make it possible +for him to keep the industrialists informed about "subversive +radicals." For a reasonable price and perhaps a contribution to a +worthy cause, Steele would supply the industrialist with "confidential +information for members only" which would keep him up to date about +the radicals threatening America. The "confidential information" must +not be shown to anybody else. Extreme caution is necessary lest the +radicals find out about the "information service." With all this +hocum, secrecy and whispering, the industrialist becomes a member at +so much per not realizing that the information thus peddled can be got +for three cents a day--five cents on Sundays--by buying the _Daily +Worker_. It's just one of the little patriotic rackets the boys have +cooked up. + +Working closely with Steele is James A. True of the James True +Associates, another precious racketeer who stepped from patrioteering +into efforts to organize in conjunction with Nazi agents a secret +armed force in the United States. With True in this effort to +establish a Cagoulard organization in this country, were some of the +most active Nazi agents and patrioteers. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] Not to be confused with Prof. Paul H. Douglas of the University of +Chicago, a highly reputable scholar and a stanch defender of democracy. + +[19] Father Coughlin was finally reprimanded by the Vatican for his +unpriestly attacks upon the President. + + + + +X + +_Underground Armies in America_ + + +Early in 1938 native Americans, working with Nazi agents, completed +plans to organize a secret army along the general lines of the +Cagoulards in France. The decision was made after the liaison man +between Nazi agents here and plotters for the secret army met with +Fritz Kuhn and Signor Giuseppe Cosmelli, Counselor to the Italian +Embassy in Washington. + +The liaison man is Henry D. Allen, who moved from San Diego to 2860 +Nina St., Pasadena, Calif. Allen, the reader may recollect, helped +Schwinn organize the Mexican Gold Shirts which unsuccessfully +attempted to seize the Mexican Government. Allen is still active in a +plot to overthrow the Cárdenas Government, working at the moment with +Gen. Ramon F. Iturbe, a member of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, +with Gen. Yocupicio who is smuggling arms as part of a plan to rebel, +and with Pablo L. Delgado who took over the fascist Gold Shirt work +under a different name after Rodriguez was exiled when his attempt to +march on the Government failed. + +To understand the feverish activities of foreign agents and native +Americans working with foreign agents, one must remember that when the +World War broke out in 1914, Germany was caught with only small +espionage and sabotage organizations in the United States. It cost the +German War Office large sums of money to build them under difficult +and dangerous conditions. The Nazis do not intend to be caught the +same way in the event a war finds the United States on the enemy side +or, if neutral, supplying arms and materials to the enemy. + +The first step to prevent such a development is to build an enormous +propaganda machine and to draw into it as many native Americans as +possible. Because of the future potentialities of natives as spies and +_saboteurs_, the Nazi leaders take extraordinary precautions to +safeguard their identities. Should the United States become involved +in a war with fascist powers, especially Germany, the German members +of the Bund can be watched and, if necessary, interned; but native +Americans not known as Bund members can move about freely, hence the +care to prevent their identities from becoming known. Schwinn, for +instance, keeps a regular list of the German-American Bund members at +the _Deutsches Haus_ in Los Angeles. The native American members, +however, are not listed. The names are kept in code and only Schwinn +knows the code numbers. + +Military considerations thus lead the Nazi General Staff to maintain +this propaganda in the United States, despite the knowledge Nazi +leaders in Germany have that its activities and distasteful propaganda +here are seriously hampering German-American commercial relations. + +The propaganda machine is already functioning as the German-American +_Volksbund_. The second step, as was demonstrated in France with the +Cagoulards and in Spain with Franco's Fifth Column, is to organize +secret armies capable of starting sporadic outbreaks tantamount to +civil war--a procedure which would naturally deflect the country's +energies in war time. + +This second step was taken after careful study, and Henry D. Allen was +chosen as the liaison man between those maneuvering the plot. + +The private letters exchanged between Allen and his fellow +conspirators are now in my possession. Some of the letters exchanged +were signed with the writers' real names and some with code names. +Allen's code name, for instance, is "Rosenthal." + +On April 13, 1938, he wrote to a "G.D." (of whom more shortly) as +follows: + + Have just sent Delgado into Sonora incognito. This move has + resulted from a four-party conference held in Yuma a few days + ago. This party was composed of Urbalejo, chief of the Yaqui + nation, Joe Mattus, his trusted lieutenant, Delgado and myself. + Yocupicio has completely come over to our side, which you can + perceive from the outcome of the little tryout in Aqua Prieta a + few weeks ago. Delgado has arrived safely at Bocatete, and will + get the boys in that part of the country pretty active.... + Inasmuch as I am his legal and properly accredited + representative in the United States, you may rest assured that + there will be no doubt as to the objectives of this movement + south of the Rio Grande. + + I have received three letters from General Iturbe in which he + tells me that they are taking the Spanish copies of the + Protocols which K. sent me, and making 5,000 copies of same. In + each letter he begs me to set a time and date for meeting him at + Guadalajara for the purpose of effecting the necessary plans for + active campaigning with Delgado. I will arrange all of this as + soon as you consider it expedient.... + + ROSENTHAL. + +Two days later (April 15, 1938) he wrote from Fresno, Calif. under his +own name to F.W. Clark, 919-½ S. Yakima Ave., Tacoma, Wash. The letter +reads in part: + + Relative to the Gold Shirts of Mexico, please be advised that we + found it necessary to reorganize this group in August, 1937. The + activist elements have proceeded and are now carrying on under + the name of the Mexican Nationalist Movement of which Pablo L. + Delgado is the nominal head. I am the legal and personal + representative of Delgado in the movement in the United States. + +So much for his current activities to establish fascism to the south +of us. + +Most Americans who fall for Nazi propaganda do not suspect that they +are being played for suckers by shrewd manipulators pulling the +strings in Berlin, and probably not one of the many reputable and +sincerely patriotic Americans who fell for Allen's "patriotic" +appeals suspects his activities against the country he so zealously +wants to "save." + +Some shrewd observer once remarked that "patriotism is the last refuge +of a scoundrel." Whenever I come across an "ultra-patriot" with foam +dripping from his mouth while he beats his chest with loud cries about +his own honesty and the crookedness of those running the country, I +suspect a phony. As a rule, I look for the criminal record of a man +who's yelling "Chase out the crooks" and "Let's have honest +government," and all too often I find one. Henry D. Allen, _alias_ +H.O. Moffet, _alias_ Howard Leighton Allen, _alias_ Rosenthal, etc., +ex-inmate of San Quentin and Folsom prisons, is no exception; his +criminal record extends over a period of twenty-nine years. + +Let me give the record before I start quoting from his letters, +chiefly for the benefit of those sincere and loyal Americans who +thought his Swastika-inspired activities represented honest +convictions. + +May 17, 1910: Arrested in Los Angeles charged with uttering fictitious +checks. In simple language this means just a little bit of forgery. +Los Angeles Police Department file, No. 7613. + +June 10, 1910: Sentenced to three years imprisonment; sentence +suspended upon tearful assurances of good behavior. + +May 12, 1912: Picked up in Philadelphia charged with being a fugitive; +brought back to Los Angeles. + +July 1, 1912: Committed to San Quentin. Guest No. 25835. + +April 21, 1915: Committed to Folsom from Santa Barbara on a forgery +charge. Guest No. 9542. + +Feb. 1, 1919: Arrested in Los Angeles County charged with suspicion of +a felony. Los Angeles County No. 14554. + +June 31, 1924: Arrested in San Francisco, charged with uttering +fictitious checks. No. 35570. + +Oct. 5, 1925: Los Angeles Police Department issued notice that Allen +was wanted for uttering fictitious checks. Bulletin No. 233. + +Allen is apparently a prolific writer--of bad checks and of long +reports about his activities to his superiors. + +Two of Allen's close friends are also native Americans: C.F. Ingalls +of 2702 Bush St., San Francisco and George Deatherage (the G.D. +mentioned earlier). Deatherage now lives and operates out of St. +Albans, W. Va. He organized the American Nationalist Confederation +which used to have its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. Both these +gentlemen also work with Schwinn. + +On January 7, 1938, Deatherage received from San Francisco a letter +signed "C.F.I."--in a plain envelope without a return address. The +letter is very long and detailed. I quote in part: + + We must get busy organizing grid-lattice-work or skeleton for a + military staff throughout the nation, and in this we need + representatives of fascist groups, and we need Americans with + whom these others may be incorporated.... All must believe in + being ruthless in an emergency.... + + The political and the military organizations must not be + unified. They have different aims. With one hand we offer the + public a potential program. Whether they accept it or not and + whether they wish to return to the ideals embodied in a + representative form of a constitutional federal republic or not, + is of secondary importance. Of first importance is the need of + the emergency military organization to function simultaneously + should our enemies revolt if we should win politically or should + we revolt if our enemies win politically. + +On January 19, 1938, Deatherage received a letter signed with the code +name "Laura and Clayton." "Laura" is Hermann Schwinn. This letter, +too, is long and goes into details on how best to organize the secret +military group and have it ready for instant action. The letter states +at one point: + + After we do all this, now then we shall have the national + military framework all steamed up and oiled and coupled to the + multiplicity of working parts ready to appear on all fronts.... + +After "C.F.I." and "Laura and Clayton" had decided on the details of +the secret military body in which they needed the aid of "Nazi and +fascist" forces, they needed money and arms. + +Early in January, Allen received from "Mrs. Fry and C. Chapman" four +hundred and fifty dollars for a trip to Washington, D.C. "Mrs. Fry and +C. Chapman" live in Santa Monica, but use Glendale, Calif, for a post +office address. This money was spent between January 13 and February +10, 1938, according to the expense account Allen turned in to the +Fry-Chapman combination. + +Three days after Allen got the money (January 16, 1938), he received +from Schwinn a letter of introduction to Fritz Kuhn, addressed to the +_Amerikadeutscher Volksbund_, 178 E. 85th Street, New York City. The +letter was written in German. Following is the translation: + + My Bund Leader: + + The bearer of this letter is my old friend and comrade-in-arms, + Henry Allen, who is coming East on an important matter. + + Mr. Allen knows the situation in Los Angeles and California very + well and can give you important information. We can give Allen + absolute confidence. + + Hail and Victory, + HERMANN SCHWINN. + +The "important matter" on which Allen was going East and which he +wanted to discuss with the national Nazi leader in this country, was +to contact the Italian Embassy, the Hungarian Legation, James True of +the James True Associates (distributors of "Industrial Control +Reports" from its headquarters in Washington, D.C.), George Deatherage +in St. Albans, W. Va., and several others. + +Allen reported regularly to Chapman, signing his letters with the code +name "Rosenthal." I quote in part from one letter written from +Washington on January 24, 1938: + + Upon calling at the Rumanian Embassy I found the Ambassador with + all his attachés are of the Carol-Tartarescu regime, and they + are sailing on Wednesday, January 26. The new Ambassador will + arrive with his staff on Saturday, I am told. The letter which + you gave me I mailed to Budapest myself, not daring to entrust + it to the present staff at the Embassy. At the Italian Embassy I + found the Ambassador away, but I had a very delightful and + satisfactory conference with Signor G. Cosmelli, who is the + Italian counselor.... + +Shortly after the conference at the Italian Embassy, True and Allen +conferred. Subsequently, True wrote to Allen and added a postscript in +long hand: "But be very careful about controlling the information and +destroy this letter." + +Allen did not destroy it immediately. The letter, dated February 23, +1938, reads in part: + + The bunch of money promised off and on for three years may come + through within the next week or two. We have had so many + disappointments that I hardly dare hope but there seems a fair + chance of results. If it comes through we will have you back + here in a hurry. You, George, and I will get together and + prepare for real action. + + If your friends want some pea shooters, I have connections now + for any quantity and at the right price. They are United States + standard surplus. Let me know as soon as you can. + +To these events must be added the peculiar and unexplained actions of +the Dies Congressional Committee appointed to "investigate subversive +activities." The Committee employed a Nazi propagandist as one of its +chief investigators and refused to question three suspected Nazi spies +working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Congressman Martin Dies of Texas, +chairman of the Committee, gave two of the _National Republic's_ +high-pressure men letters of introduction when they started out on a +little milking party in the name of patriotism. He received the +cooperation of Harry A. Jung, and he refused to examine the files of +James A. True when the above letter was brought to his Committee's +attention. + +But these actions merit more detailed consideration. + + + + +XI + +_The Dies Committee Suppresses Evidence_ + + +Three Suspected Nazi Spies were quietly taken out of the Brooklyn Navy +Yard to the Dies Congressional Committee headquarters in New York in +Room 1604, United States Court House Building. The three men were each +questioned for about five minutes by Congressman J. Parnell Thomas[20] +of New Jersey and Joe Starnes of Alabama. The men were asked if they +had heard of any un-American goings-on in the Navy Yard. Each of the +three subpoenaed men said he had not, and the Congressmen sent them +back to work in the Navy Yard after warning them not to say a word to +anyone about having been called before the Committee. + +When I learned of the Congressional Committee's refusal to question men +they had subpoenaed, I wondered at the unusual procedure--especially +since it promptly put Nazi propagandists (such as Edwin P. Banta, a +speaker for the German-American Bund) on the stand as authorities on +"un-American" activities in the United States. A little inquiry turned +up some interesting facts. + + +One of the Committee's chief investigators, Edward Francis Sullivan of +Boston, had worked closely with Nazi agents as far back as 1934. +Sullivan's whole record was extremely unsavory. He had been a labor +spy, had been active in promoting anti-democratic sentiments in +cooperation with secret agents of the German Government and in +addition was a convicted thief. (Shortly after Slap-Happy Eddie, as he +was known around Boston because of his convictions on drunkenness, +lined up with the Nazis, he got six months for a little stealing.) +Before going on with the Congressional Committee's strange attitude +toward suspected spies and known propagandists in constant +communication with Germany, it might be well to review a meeting which +the Congressional Committee's investigator addressed in the Nazi +stronghold in Yorkville. + + [Illustration: Reproduction of a document showing that Edward + Francis Sullivan, at one time chief investigator for the Dies + Committee, was convicted of larceny and sentenced to prison.] + +On the night of Tuesday, June 5, 1934, at eight o'clock, some 2,500 +Nazis and their friends attended a mass meeting of the Friends of the +New Germany at Turnhall, Lexington Ave. and 85th Street, New York +City. Sixty Nazi Storm Troopers--attired in uniforms with black +breeches and Sam Brown belts, smuggled off Nazi ships--were the guard +of honor. Storm Troop officers had white and red arm bands with the +swastika superimposed on them. Every twenty minutes the Troopers, +clicking their heels in the best Nazi fashion, changed guard in front +of the speakers' stand. The Hitler Youth organization was present. Men +and women Nazis sold the official Nazi publication, _Jung Sturm_, and +everybody awaited the coming of one of the chief speakers of the +evening who was to bring them a message from the Boston Nazis. + +W.L. McLaughlin, then editor of the _Deutsche Zeitung_, spoke in +English. He was followed by H. Hempel, an officer of the Nazi +steamship "Stuttgart," who vigorously exhorted his audience to fight +for Hitlerism and was rewarded by shouts of "Heil Hitler!" McLaughlin +then introduced Edward Francis Sullivan of Boston as a "fighting +Irishman." The gentleman whom the Congressional Committee chose as one +of its investigators into subversive activities, gave the crowd the +Hitler salute and launched into an attack upon the "dirty, lousy, +stinking Jews." In the course of his talk he announced proudly that he +had organized the group of Nazis in Boston who had attacked and +beaten liberals and Communists at a meeting protesting the docking of +the Nazi cruiser "Karlsruhe," in an American port. + +The audience cheered. Sullivan, again giving the Nazi salute, shouted: +"Throw the goddam lousy Jews--all of them--into the Atlantic Ocean. +We'll get rid of the stinking kikes! Heil Hitler!" + + +The three suspected Nazi spies were subpoenaed on August 23, 1938. +They were: + +Walter Dieckhoff, Badge No. 38117, living at 2654 E. 19th Street, +Sheepshead Bay. + +Hugo Woulters, Badge No. 38166, living at 221 East 16th Street, +Brooklyn. + +Alfred Boldt, Badge No. 38069, living at 64-29 70th Street, Middle +Village, L.I. + +Boldt had worked in the Navy Yard since 1931. Dieckhoff and Woulters +went to work there within one day of each other in June, 1936. + +The three men were kept in the Committee's room from one o'clock on +the day they were subpoenaed until five in the afternoon. When it +became apparent that the Congressmen would not show up until the next +day, the men were dismissed and told to come back the following +morning. + +Not a word was said to them as to why they had been subpoenaed. +Nevertheless Dieckhoff, who was with the German Air Corps during the +World War, instead of going to his home in Sheepshead Bay, drove to +the home of Albert Nordenholz at 1572 Castleton Ave., Port Richmond, +S.I., where he kept two trunks. Nordenholz, a German-American +naturalized citizen for many years, is highly respected by the people +in his neighborhood. When Dieckhoff first came to the United States, +the Nordenholzes accepted him with open arms. He was the son of an old +friend back in Bremerhafen, Germany. Dieckhoff asked permission to +keep two trunks in the Nordenholz garret; he stored them there when +he went to work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. + +During the two years he worked in the Yard, he would drop around every +two weeks or so and go up to the garret to his trunks. Just what he +did on those visits, Nordenholz does not know. + +On the night Dieckhoff was subpoenaed he suddenly appeared to claim +the trunks. He told Nordenholz that he planned to return to Germany. +Just what the trunks contained and what he did with them I do not +know. They have vanished. + + +I called upon Dieckhoff in the two-story house in Sheepshead Bay where +he lived. He had no intimate friends, didn't smoke, drink or run +around. The life of the German war veteran seemed to be confined to +working in the Navy Yard, returning home unobtrusively to work on +ships' models and making his occasional visits to Nordenholz's garret. + +So far as I could learn, Dieckhoff became a marine engineer, working +for the North German Lloyd after the World War. In 1923 he entered the +United States illegally and remained for two years. Eventually he +returned to Germany, but came back to the United States, this time +legally, applied for citizenship papers and became a naturalized +citizen five years later. + +Before he went to work on American war vessels, he worked in various +parts of the country--in automobile shops, in the General Electric Co. +in Schenectady and as an engineer on Sheepshead Bay boats. Even after +Hitler came into power, he worked on Sheepshead Bay boats. After the +Berlin-Tokyo axis was formed (1935), Germany became particularly +interested in American naval affairs, for the axis, among other +things, exchanged military secrets. Shortly before the agreement was +made, Dieckhoff suddenly went to work for the Staten Island +Shipbuilding Co., Staten Island, which was building four United States +destroyers, numbers 364, 365, 384 and 385. He worked on these +destroyers during the day. Until late at night he pursued his hobby of +building ships' models, which he never made an attempt to sell. + +Dieckhoff weighed his words carefully during our talk. + +"Why did you apply for a transfer from Staten Island to the Brooklyn +Navy Yard?" I asked. + +"I don't know," he said. "I guess there was more money in it." + +"How much were you getting when you were working on the destroyers?" + +"It was some time ago," he said slowly. "I do not remember very good." + +"How much are you getting now at the Navy Yard?" + +"Forty dollars and twenty-nine cents a week." + +"You went to Germany last year for a couple of months and before that +you went to Germany for six months. Were you able to save enough for +these trips on your wages?" + +"I do not spend very much," he said. "I live here all alone." + +"How much do you save a week?" + +"Oh, I don't know. Ten dollars a week." + +"That would make five hundred dollars a year--if you worked steadily, +which you didn't. You traveled third class. A round trip would be +about two hundred dollars. That would leave you three hundred to spend +provided you did not buy clothes, etc., for these trips. How did you +manage to live in Germany for six months on three hundred dollars? Did +you work there?" + +He hesitated and said, "No, I did not work there. I traveled around. I +was not in one place." + +"How did you do it on three hundred dollars for six months?" + +"My brother gave me money." + +"What's your brother's business?" + +"Oh, just general business in Bremerhafen. He's got a big business +there." + +"Perhaps I can get a report from the American Consul--" + +"Oh," he interrupted. "His business isn't that big." + +"Have you a bank account?" + +He hesitated again and then said, "No, I do not make enough money for +a bank account." + +"Where do you keep your money for trips to Germany? In cash?" + +"Yes, in cash." + +"Where? Here? In this room?" + +"No. Not in this room. I have it locked up." + +"Where?" + +"Oh, different places," he said vaguely. + +"Where are those places?" + +"I have my money with a friend." + +"Who?" + +"Nordenholz, Albert Nordenholz." + +"You work in Brooklyn, live in Sheepshead Bay and save ten dollars a +week in Port Richmond with a friend? Isn't that a long distance to go +to save money?" + +He shrugged his shoulders without answering. + +"What's Nordenholz's business?" + +"I think he's retired. I think he used to be a butcher." + +"You don't know very much about a man's business and you travel all +this distance to give him money to save for you when there are banks +all around? Why do you do that?" + +"Oh, I don't know. It seems to me that it is better that way." + +Later when I asked Nordenholz, he denied that Dieckhoff had ever given +him any money to hold. + +Dieckhoff had worked on turbines, gear reductions and other +complicated mechanical parts on the cruiser "Brooklyn." The moment I +asked him if he handled blueprints he answered in the affirmative, but +quickly added that the blueprints were returned every night and locked +up by the officers. A capable machinist could, he admitted, after +careful study remember the blueprints well enough to make a duplicate +copy. + +"When you went to Germany after working on the destroyers did anyone +ever question you about them over there?" + +"No," he said quickly. "Nobody." + +"My information is that you did talk about structural matters." + +He looked startled. "Well," he said, "my brother knew I worked in the +Brooklyn Navy Yard. We talked about it, naturally." + +"My information is that you talked about it with other people, too." + +He stared out of the window with a worried air. Finally he said, +"Well, my brother has a friend and I talked with him about it." + +"A minute ago you said you had not talked about it with anyone." + +"I had forgotten." + +"This is the brother who gave you money to travel around in Germany?" + +He didn't answer. + +"I didn't hear you," I said. + +"Yes," Dieckhoff said finally, "he gave me the money." + + +I called upon the second of the three suspected spies subpoenaed by +the Dies Committee. Alfred Boldt had done very responsible work on the +U.S. cruiser "Honolulu." Though he had not been in Germany for ten +years, he suddenly got enough money last year to go there and to send +his son to school at a Nazi academy. Boldt, too, has no bank account. +He needed a minimum of seven hundred dollars for his wife and himself +to cross third class, but the Dies Committee was not interested in +where the money for the trip had come from. + +Boldt left for Germany on August 4, 1936, and returned September 12. +On the evening I dropped in to see him, he was tensely nervous. He had +heard that someone had been around to talk with Dieckhoff. + +"I understand your only son, Helmuth, is going to school in Langin, +Germany?" I asked. + +"Yes," he said, "I sent him there two years ago." + +"No schools in the United States for a fifteen-year-old boy?" + +"I wanted him to learn German." + +"What do you pay for his schooling over there?" + +He hesitated. His wife, who was sitting with us and occasionally +advising him in German, suddenly interrupted in German, "Don't tell +him. That's German business." + +I assume they did not know that I understood, for Boldt passed off her +comment as if he had not heard it and said casually, "Oh, twenty-five +dollars a month." + +"You earn forty dollars a week at the Navy Yard, pay for your son's +schooling in Germany, clothes, etc., and you and your wife took more +than a month's trip to Germany last year. How do you do it on forty a +week?" + +His wife giggled a little in the adjoining room. Boldt shrugged his +shoulder without answering. + +"The cheapest the two of you could do it, third class, would be about +seven hundred dollars. Where do you have your bank account?" + +"No. No bank account," his wife interrupted sharply. + +"All the money is kept here, right here in this house," he laughed. + +"You saved all that money in cash?" + +"Yes; in cash, right here." + +"No banks?" + +"We like it better like that--in cash." + +Boldt, like Dieckhoff, had been a marine engineer on the North German +Lloyd. He went to work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1931. When the +cruiser "Honolulu" made its trial run in the spring of 1938, Boldt was +on board. + +Like Dieckhoff and Boldt, Harry Woulters, _alias_ Hugo Woulters, the +third of the three subpoenaed men, is a naturalized citizen of German +extraction. He went to work in the Navy Yard within one day of +Dieckhoff. Before that, both had worked on the same four American +destroyers at the Staten Island Shipbuilding Company. + +The house where Woulters lives has a great many Jews in it, judging +from the names on the letterboxes, and since Hugo sounded too German, +he listed his first name as "Harry." + +"You and Dieckhoff worked on the same destroyers on Staten Island and +you say you never met him there?" I asked. + +"No, I never met him until the second day after I went to work in the +Navy Yard." + +"How many people work on a destroyer--a thousand?" + +"Oh, no. Not that many." + +"About one hundred?" + +"About that," he said uncertainly. + +"And you worked with Dieckhoff for six months on the same warships and +never met him?" + +"Yes," he insisted. + +"How come that if you never met him both of you applied for jobs at +the Brooklyn Navy Yard at about the same time?" + +He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. It's funny. Sounds funny, +anyway." + +"When you worked on the cruiser 'Honolulu' you handled blueprints?" + +"Yes, of course, but they were never left in my possession overnight," +he added quickly. I couldn't help but think that Dieckhoff, too, had +been very quick in protesting that the blueprints had never been left +in his possession overnight. They seemed worried about that even +though I had not said anything about it. + +"Were they _ever_ left in your possession overnight?" + +"No. They guarded the blueprints--" + +"My information is that they were left in your possession." + +"Wells, sometimes--blueprints--you know, when you work from blueprints +sometimes, yes, sometimes blueprints were left in my possession +overnight. I was working on reduction gears on the cruiser 'Brooklyn' +and I kept the blueprints overnight." + +"How often?" + +"I can't remember how often. Sometimes the blueprints were kept +overnight in my tool box." + +"You also worked on turbines and other complicated and confidential +structural problems on the warship?" + +"Yes." + +"And you kept those blueprints overnight, too?" + +"Sometimes--not often. Sometimes I left them in my tool box +overnight." + +Woulters, during the latter period of construction on the "Brooklyn" +and the "Honolulu" had got two jobs which most workers do not like. He +had the four to midnight and the midnight to eight A.M. watches. +Normally Woulters likes to stay at home with his wife. + +"While you had these watch duties you had pretty much the run of the +ship?" + +He hesitated and weighed his words carefully before answering. Finally +he nodded and added hastily, "But no one can get on board." + +"I didn't ask that. Did you have the run of the ship while everybody +else was asleep when you were on watch?" + +"Yes," he said in a low voice. + +"How did you happen to work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard?" + +"Oh, I don't know. I like to work for the Government." + +"Have you a bank account?" + +"Yes." + +"What bank?" + +"Oh, I don't know, it's some place on Church Avenue." + +"You have about 2,400 dollars in the bank, a nice apartment, and you +and your wife went on a trip to Germany last year. Did you save all +that money in so short a time on wages of forty dollars a week?" + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"Your bank account does not show withdrawals sufficient to cover the +trip to Germany--" + +"Say," he interrupted excitedly as soon as he saw where the question +was leading, "when I was called before the Dies Committee, the +Congressman there shook hands with me and asked me if I knew anything +about un-American activities in the Navy Yard. I told him I didn't and +he told me to go back to work and not to say anything about having +been called before them. Now I do not understand why you ask me all +these questions. The Congressman told me not to talk and I am saying +nothing more. Nothing." + + +The Dies Congressional Committee was not interested in these three men +whom they had subpoenaed and then, oddly enough, refused to question. +Besides this very strange procedure by a Committee empowered by the +Congress to investigate subversive activities, the Dies Committee +withheld for months documentary evidence of Nazi activities in this +country directed from Germany. The Committee obtained letters to +Guenther Orgell and Peter Gissibl, but quietly placed them in their +files without telling anyone about the existence of these documents. +They did not subpoena or question the men involved. + +The letters the Committee treated so cavalierly are from E.A. +Vennekohl in charge of the foreign division of the _Volksbund für das +Deutschtum im Ausland_ with headquarters in Berlin, letters from the +foreign division headquarters in Stuttgart, and from Orgell to +Gissibl. + +Gissibl was in constant touch with Nazi propaganda headquarters in +Germany, receiving instructions and reporting not only on general +activities, but especially upon the opening by the Nazis here of +schools for children in which Nazi propaganda would be disseminated. + +The letters, freely translated, follow. The first is dated October 29, +1937, and was sent by Orgell from his home at Great Kills, S.I.: + + Dear Mr. Gissibl: + + Many thanks for your prompt reply. My complaint that one cannot + get an answer from Chicago refers to the time prior to May, + 1937. + + I assume from your writing that it is not opportune any more to + deliver further books to the _Arbeitsgemeinschaft_, etc. + + The material which Mr. Balderman received came from the + V.D.A.[21] It has been sent to our Central Book distributing + place (Mirbt). If he wishes he can get more any time; that is, + if you recommend it. + + The thirty books for your Theodore Koerner School, which arrived + this summer (via the German Consulate General in Chicago), also + came from the V.D.A. If you need more first readers or study + books, please write directly to me. Your request then goes + immediately--without the official way via the Consulate and + Foreign Office--to our Central Book distributing place. Please + say how many you need and what else beside the first readers and + primers[22] you need. I will take care that it will be promptly + attended to. Fritz Kuhn, of course, has to be informed of your + request and has to give his okay.... + + With German greetings, + CARL G. ORGELL. + +Five days earlier Orgell had written to Gissibl: "You may perhaps +remember that I am in charge of the work for the _Volkbund für das +Deutschtum im Ausland_[23] for the U.S.A." + + [Illustration: A letter the Dies Committee shelved--Carl G. + Orgell identifying himself to Peter Gissibl as a representative + of the People's Bund for Germans Living Abroad.] + +On March 18, 1938, Gissibl, who had been taking instructions from +Orgell, received the following letter from Stuttgart: + + Dear Peter: + + From your office manager. Comrade Möller, I received a letter + dated February 15. He informed me among other things that an + exchange of youth is out of the question for this year. I regret + this very much. I would like to see, in the interests of our + common efforts, if we would have had youth all ready this year, + especially also from your district. Perhaps it is still + possible with your support. The time, of course, which is still + at our disposal, is very limited. This I can see clearly. + + I will write to you again in greater detail soon. In the + meantime you can perhaps send me more detailed information about + the development of your school during the past weeks; I + recommend again the fulfillment of your justified wishes + wholeheartedly. Let us hope that the result might be achieved + very soon towards which we in common strive. + + Hearty greetings from house to house. + + In loyal comradeship, + Yours, + G. MOSHACK. + +On May 20, 1938, E.A. Vennekohl, of the People's Bund for Germans +Living Abroad, wrote to Gissibl as follows: + + Dear Comrade Gissibl: + + We wrote you yesterday that the 3,000 badges for the singing + festival would be sent to you via Orgell; for various reasons we + have now divided the badges in ten single packages of which two + each went to the following addresses: Friedrich Schlenz, Karl + Moeller, Karl Kraenzle, Orgell and two to you. + + Please inform your co-workers respectively and take care that in + case duties have to be paid they should be laid out; please see + to it that Orgell refunds the money to you later; this was the + simplest and the only way by which the badges could be sent in + order to arrive on time. + + With the German people's greetings, + E.A. VENNEKOHL. + +These documents in the hands of the Dies Committee show definite +tie-ups between German propaganda divisions and agents in the United +States (some of them came through the Nazi diplomatic corps), yet +these documents were put aside. The letters from True, Allen, and +others quoted in the previous chapter were also placed before the +Congressional Committee. It refused to call the men involved. + + [Illustration: Another letter connecting Gissibl with a German + propaganda agency. This letter, translated in the text, was + hardly noticed by the Dies Committee.] + + [Illustration: Further evidence of Gissibl's tie-up with the + People's Bund for Germans Living Abroad. This letter, a + translation of which appears in the text, was also long withheld + by the Dies Committee.] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] Formerly known as J. Parnell Feeney. He changed his name because he +thought he could get along better in the business world with a name like +Thomas than with a name as potently Irish as Feeney. + +[21] Nazi propaganda center for foreign countries with headquarters in +Germany. + +[22] The notorious Nazi Primer teaching children songs of hate against +Jews and Catholics. + +[23] People's Bund for Germans Living Abroad. + + + + +_Conclusion_ + + +The activities of the few agents and propagandists described in the +foregoing chapters do not, as I said in the preface, even scratch the +surface of what seem to be widespread efforts to interfere in the +internal affairs of the American people and their Government; but a +few basic conclusions can reasonably be drawn from what little is +known of the Fifth Column's operations. + +Berlin-directed agents in foreign countries sometimes combine +propaganda and espionage, frequently using the propaganda +organizations as the bases for espionage. In the United States, so far +as I have been able to ascertain, agents of the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis +are just beginning to cooperate. In the Central and South American +countries, however, the axis has apparently agreed to a division of +labor, each of the fascist powers assuming a specific field of +activity. + +Germany, Italy and Japan have already shown the extent to which they +will go in their drive for raw materials vital to their industries and +war machines. In Spain, the German and Italian Fifth Column organized +and fomented a bloody civil war in order to establish a wide fascist +area to the south of France, for Germany and Italy, of course, +consider France a potential enemy in the next war. In France itself, +German and Italian agents, aided by their Governments, built an +amazing network of steel and concrete fortifications manned by at +least 100,000 heavily armed men--all this before France awoke to the +treason within her own borders. + +The strategy pursued by the Fifth Column in different countries falls +into like patterns. In Austria, before it was swallowed, Nazi agents +first established propaganda organizations as the bases from which to +work. When, after the abortive attempt to seize the Austrian +Government, the Nazis were made illegal, they went underground but +continued to get aid from Germany. Eventually Berlin ordered +_Standarte II_ organized as a specific body prepared to provoke +disturbances. When the Austrian police quelled them, the provocations +enabled Germany to protest that German citizens were being attacked +and mistreated. The activities of _Standarte II_, directed by the +Gestapo, continued with increasing intensity until the unfortunate +country was absorbed. + +In Czechoslovakia the same strategy was followed: first the +establishment of propaganda centers to which Nazis and Nazi +sympathizers could gravitate--under the cloak of bodies seeking to +improve relations between the Sudeten Germans and the Czech +Government; then the utilization of propaganda headquarters and +branches as centers for espionage. Shortly before the Munich Pact, +_Standarte II_ again came into being, creating disorders which, when +Czech police tried to suppress them, enabled Germany to raise the cry +that Czech subjects of German blood were being cruelly mistreated. + +Invariably the aggressor nation raises a moral issue to cover up +proposed acts of aggression. Italy wanted to "civilize the Ethiopians" +by dropping bombs on defenseless women and children. Germany and Italy +openly sent aid to Franco "to keep Spain from being Bolshevized." And +so on. The broad "moral issue" on the international field to cover up +aggressions by the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis is "Communism." The axis, +announced as having been formed "to exchange information about +Communism," is really a military alliance now generally recognized. +With the same issue, the axis is now boring into the Western +Hemisphere. Actually the reasons seem to be military and not +missionary. + +Germany, especially, has sent and is sending agents not only to carry +on espionage but to organize groups for political pressure upon the +American republics. I very much doubt, from all I have been able to +learn, if the motive is primarily to win the Americas over to the joys +of totalitarian government or to the theory of Aryan supremacy. The +money and the effort seem to be expended for more practical reasons. +The Bunds can exert not only political pressure, but can develop +natives with fascist leanings into the spies and _saboteurs_ so badly +needed in war time; for this reason it is worth the enormous effort +and money it is costing the aggressor nations. + +When the long expected war breaks, neither Europe nor the Far East +will be in a condition to supply war materials and foodstuffs to the +warring countries. The chief sources of raw materials will be the +Western Hemisphere. A strong foothold in the Americas means a +tremendous advantage in the coming struggle, since materials are as +important to an army as is man power. And, should the fascist powers +be unable to get these raw materials for themselves, secret agents can +at least sabotage shipments to enemy countries--as did German agents +in the United States during the first years of the World War, while we +were still neutral. + +Mexico, because of its enormous oil supplies, plays an important part +in fascist military strategy. Consequently, we find intensive efforts +by the axis, and especially Germany, to overthrow the Cárdenas +Government because it is avowedly anti-fascist. A fascist government, +helped into power by the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis, could be depended +upon to supply much needed oil in war time. + +The United States, as one of the world's greatest sources of raw +materials and foodstuffs, is an even more important factor. Germany +has not forgotten that its armies had the Allies on their knees when +American supplies and American man power turned their imminent victory +into defeat; should America be on the side of the democracies as +against the fascist powers, sabotaging shipments of supplies and men +will be as important as crushing an enemy line. + +The tactics utilized in the Western Hemisphere by the Fifth Column are +similar to those used in Europe. Propaganda machines, masquerading as +organizations designed to promote better relationships between a +fascist and an American nation, are set up. Fascist movements are +organized, usually from across national boundaries. In Mexico, Nazi +agents operating out of the United States organized the Gold Shirts; +subsequently, as in Austria, a Putsch was attempted (in 1935 and again +in 1938). The storing of arms in Sonora by General Yocupicio, who is +working with Nazi agents, promises another rebellion when the time +seems ripe. + +In Central America, the axis is presenting small republics with gifts +of arms in efforts to win their friendship. Agents sent from Germany +are establishing Nazi centers and the home Government is supplying +them with propaganda. In Panama the situation is somewhat more sharp. +There Japan has always had an intense interest in the Canal. In the +axis, Germany has become a co-worker since she has large colonies in +Brazil and Colombia, next door to the Panama Canal. These colonies are +now being organized at a feverish pace while the countries themselves +are deluged with propaganda over special short-wave beams. In Brazil, +a Nazi-directed abortive Putsch took place in 1938. + +These activities point to an objective which certainly is not +calculated to be in the interest of the United States and our Monroe +Doctrine. From all indications the efforts appear directed toward +ringing the United States with fascist countries, or at least +countries with fascist bodies capable of giving the United States a +headache should she ever be involved in a war with one or all of the +axis powers. + +In the United States itself we find that the strategy is the same as +that followed in Austria, Czechoslovakia and in countries of the +Western World. The German-American Bund functions "to promote better +relations between the United States and Germany," but the efforts +consist of persistent anti-American and anti-democratic propaganda +and, within the past year or two, of serving as a base for military +and naval spies. + +With Germany directing the strategy, her agents in all countries raise +the issue of the "menace of the Jew and the Catholic," with especial +emphasis upon the Jew; the Catholics are still too strong for the +Nazis to come to grips with at this time. + +The Federal Government, of course, has ample legal machinery for +prosecuting spies, but espionage is only part of the broad Nazi +campaign against this democratic Government. So far as the Western +World is concerned, the Federal Government has already taken steps to +try to counteract the short-wave broadcasts by German and Italian +government-controlled stations. Counter broadcasts are being employed +as a defensive measure, and though of value, will probably not +completely counteract fascist "news" agencies supplying propaganda in +the guise of news, free of charge, to the Central and South American +newspapers as well as printed propaganda sent from Germany and +distributed by the bunds. Outside of military action, economic +pressure seems to be the only language the fascist governments +understand, and a little of that pressure by the American Government +would probably make them understand our resentment at their invasion +far more than broadcasts and general talk about a family of nations in +the Western Hemisphere. + +Our laws and courts provide a machinery which can be used to prevent +any infringement upon the democratically constituted rights of the +people. It is of vital importance, however, that preparations for +fascist lawlessness be vigilantly uprooted. The Italian and German +people made just this fatal mistake of tolerating the activities of +Mussolini's and Hitler's gangs until they grew strong enough to seize +power and crush every sign of democracy. + +There is no reason why a great people, attacked by a pernicious +ideology, cannot counteract such propaganda with greater and more +intelligent propaganda to educate our people to the advantages of +democracy--to what fascism really means to everyone, including the big +industrialists and financiers, some of whom have been flirting with +fascism. The Government, however, can and should be instructed by the +representatives of the people, to take proper steps to stop the +infiltration of Nazi agents and propagandists into this country. + +There are various other and perhaps more practical and useful steps +which can be taken, but those can be worked out once the people awake +to the danger of permitting fascist propaganda to go on, and sentiment +becomes strong enough to put an end to foreign-directed activities +here. + + +--THE END-- + + + _This book has been produced wholly + under union conditions. The paper was + made, the type set, the plates + electrotyped, and the printing and + binding done in union shops affiliated + with the American Federation of Labor. + All employees of Modern Age Books, + Inc., are members of the Book and + Magazine Guild, Local No. 18 of the + United Office and Professional Workers + of America, affiliated with the + Congress of Industrial Organizations._ + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Typographical errors corrected in text: | + | | + | Page 44: Potosi replaced with Potosí | + | Page 109: Nicholas Rodriguez replaced with | + | Nicholás Rodriguez | + | Page 122: 'Among those who attended where' replaced with | + | 'Among those who attended were' | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Secret Armies, by John L. 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