....

370

1,374

1917 (to end of July) From Aug. 1, 1914, to July 31, 1915, 72 enemy airplanes were shot down, of which 39 fell into German hands; from Aug. 1, 1915, to July 31, 1916, 455 enemy airplanes were shot down, of which 267 fell into German hands; from Aug. 1, 1916, to July 31, 1917, "about" 1,771 enemy airplanes were shot down, of which 776 fell into German hands.

In 1915 two enemy captive balloons, so far as is known, were shot down; in 1916, 42; in 1917 to Aug. 1, 142. Three enemy airships were also shot down.

Total aircraft shot down from Aug. 1, 1914, to Aug. 1, 1917, about 2,298 enemy and 682 German airplanes, 186 enemy captive balloons, and 3 airships.

The London Times took strong exception to these figures, replying as follows:

The Paris Matin, whose authority is at least as high on the one side as that of the Berliner Tageblatt is on the other, stated on Jan. 1, 1917, that the French brought down 450 German machines in 1916 and the British 250. This figure of 700 compares with the German admission of 221. There is confirmation of this unofficial estimate in the table compiled from the statements in the official communiqués of British and French Headquarters which appeared in The Times of Dec. 5, 1916, and which showed that, for the six months June to November in that year, 666 German machines were brought, shot, or driven down by the Allies. If we take the year 1917 as it is calculated by the Tageblatt-Aug. 1, 1916, to July 31, 1917-the official British and French figures show that 2,076 German machines were sent down-1,325 by the British, 751 by the French. It is not pretended that all these were destroyed, but if we take, merely for May, June, and July, those which were officially stated to have crashed, to have been destroyed, brought down in flames, shot down by gunfire, or captured, we get, instead of the Tageblatt's figure of 370 for the whole year, 523 for three months.

A

T the time in the Fall of 1914 when the German plots against Canada were fomenting in this country there was established at 60 Wall Street, New York, an "advertising" office presided over by a large, suave man of Teutonic aspect named Wolf von Igel. There were two peculiar features about this office. One was that it was frequented during two years of singularly quiet and unbusinesslike existence chiefly by Germans who had nothing whatsoever to do with advertising. The other was a large safe, bearing the insignia of the German Imperial Government.

To this office there came one morning in April, 1916, while von Igel was preparing a mass of papers which he had taken from the safe for transfer to the German Embassy in Washington, four United States Secret Service agents from the Department of Justice, who made their way past the guardians always on duty, put von Igel under arrest, and undertook to seize the papers. The German was powerful and brave. With the aid of one associate he stubbornly fought the officers, striving to rescue the papers, to close the safe, to get to the telephone and communicate with his superiors. Revolvers were drawn by the Secret Service men. They produced no effect upon the intrepid von Igel.

"This is German territory," he shouted. "Shoot me and you will bring on war."

German Embassy Protests

There was no shooting. But after a protracted struggle the defenders were overpowered and the papers seized. The

German Embassy at once entered its protest. These were official papers. They were sacrosanct. The diplomatic prerogative of a friendly nation had been overridden and the person of its representative insulted. To this the State Department replied that the invaded premises at 60 Wall Street were described in the contract as a private business office for the carrying on of advertising, and that von Igel had not been formally accredited as a German representative.

When the papers were examined by the Department of Justice the reason for von Igel's determined fight became apparent. Here, in the form of letters, telegrams, notations, checks, receipts, ledgers, cashbooks, cipher codes, lists of spies, and other memoranda and records were found indications--in some instances of the vaguest nature, in others of the most damning conclusiveness-that the German Imperial Government, through its representatives in a then friendly nation, was concerned with—

Violation of the laws of the United States.

Destruction of lives and property in merchant vessels on the high seas.

Irish revolutionary plots against Great Britain.

Fomenting ill-feeling against the United States in Mexico.

Subornation of American writers and lecturers.

Financing of propaganda.

Maintenance of a spy system under the guise of a commercial investigation bu

reau.

Subsidizing of a bureau for the purpose of stirring up labor troubles in munition plants.

The bomb industry and other related activities.

German Ambassador Alarmed From the moment of the seizure of these papers Count von Bernstorff realized that his position was in danger; but the revelation of their contents was delayed, and his activities continued, as shown by telegrams that come into the later phases of the present story.

a

During the early stages of the war Bernstorff contented himself with the establishment of a great secret service in this country, coupled with machine for propagating anti-British sentiment. When the United States and Great Britain were involved in dispute over British methods of seizing American shipping bound for Germany, Bernstorff by every means possible focused attention upon the injustice of the allied cause. When this policy failed, Bernstorff, acting by agents throughout the country, sought to cripple American industry which was helping the allied war machine. During this period he carefully avoided becoming directly involved in the crimes. He established von Papen, Boy-Ed, Wolf von Igel, and Dr. Albert in New York, where they kept far enough from him to clear his official skirts. Then von Igel became the leader of the dynamite men working with BoyEd and von Papen. Finally von Igel was caught red-handed. Bernstorff was invited by Secretary Lansing to go to the State Department and claim such papers as he regarded as official, but he did not go, knowing that they incriminated the embassy itself.

Placing Bombs on Vessels.

One of the most significant papers in the von Igel collection is a letter of July 20, 1915, written upon the stationery of the Bureau of Investigation. This innocent-pretending agency was at the outset the secret service of the HamburgAmerican Steamship Company. Under Paul König, its manager, it became an adjunct to the German diplomatic secret service. "XXX" is the secret designation of König, who is now under indictments on criminal charges in connection with his "diplomatic "work, and is interned at Fort Oglethorpe. The person represented by the figure" 7000" is Captain von Papen, former Military Attaché

of the German Embassy and the practical executive of its underground system. The document describes the subterfuges of “XXX” (König) so that he might not be identified by the mysterious when they met. "XXX" states that money was to be drawn for the payment of $150 to the unnamed person, under peculiar precautions, through "Check No. 146 on the Riggs National Bank, Washington, dated July 16, payable to signed amount $150. No reason was given as to why the payment was made," says the report.

Several days after the payment the recipient called at the " passenger office of the Line" and made a statement, which is thus embodied in the XXX report:

My name is I have an office at the building, but I do not care to state my local address. I intend to cause serious damage to vessels of the Allies leaving ports of the United States by placing bombs, which I am making myself, on board. These bombs resemble ordinary lumps of coal, and I am planning to have them concealed in the coal to be laden on steamers of the Allies.

Brought Sample Bomb

Finally XXX states that "the caller” brought with him a sample bomb, "such as has been described to you by the subscriber," and asks for the instructions.

The document is lettered at the foot, "O. R. to 7000," indicating that the secret agent known as "O. R." had transmitted it to von Papen.

Now for the proof, direct and unescapable. Check 146 on the Riggs National Bank has been traced and added to the Secret Service collection. It is payable to König and signed by von Papen. Therefore, von Papen stands convicted, on the evidence of a report claimed as an official document by the Germans, of paying money to a plotter designing to blow up merchant ships sailing from the Port of New York.

Three members of the gang of plotters who received thousands of dollars for distributing the bombs which sank thirty ships carrying munitions to the Allies in 1915 were arrested in New York Oct. 10, 1917, and are now held for trial. The evidence against them was found in von Igel's papers.

Compare the foregoing facts with the following authorized statement from Berlin, transmitted by wireless for publication in THE NEW YORK TIMES in December, 1915:

The German Government has, naturally, *never knowingly accepted the support of any person, group of persons, society, or organization seeking to promote the cause of Germany in the United States by illegal acts, by counsel of violence, by contravention of law, or by any means whatever that could offend the American people in the pride of their own authority.

Making Trouble in Factories

Closely related to and to some extent under the guidance of von Igel was the German and Austro-Hungarian Labor Information and Relief Bureau, with central headquarters at 136 Liberty Street, New York City, and branches in Cleveland, Detroit, Bridgeport, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Chicago. The head of the enterprise was Hans Liebau, from whom it took its familiarly accepted name of the "Liebau Employment Agency." During the trying days which followed the arrest of the Welland Canal conspirators it was unwaveringly asserted that the Liebau concern was a bona fide employment agency and nothing else, with no object other than to secure positions for German, Austrian, or Hungarian workmen seeking employment. That was for publication only. In von Igel's papers the truth appears, brought out by the refusal of the Austro-Hungarian Embassy to continue its subsidies to the bu

reau.

That the Austro-Hungarian Embassy had taken official cognizance of the bureau previously, however, is disclosed in the letter written by the Ambassador to the Austro-Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs, which was found in the possession of James F. J. Archibald by the British authorities Aug. 30, 1915. this letter the Ambassador stated:

It is my impression that we can disorganize and hold up for months, if not entirely prevent, the manufacture of munitions in Bethlehem and the Middle West, which, in the opinion of the German Military Attaché, is of importance and amply outweighs the comparatively small expenditure of money involved; but even if the strikes do not come off, it is probable that we should extort, under pressure of cir

In

cumstances, more favorable conditions of labor for our poor, downtrodden fellowcountrymen. So far as German workmen are found in the skilled hands, means of leaving will be provided immediately for them. Besides this, a private German employment office has been established which provides employment for persons who have voluntarily given up their places, and it is already working well. We shall also join in, and the widest support is assured us.

Letter to Count Bernstorff

The following representations on behalf of the bureau's efficiency were made, under date of March 24, 1916, in a letter to the German Ambassador, von Bernstorff:

Engineers and persons in the better class of positions, and who had means of their own, were persuaded by the propaganda of the bureau to leave war material factories.

The report comments with unconcealed amusement upon the fact that munitions concerns innocently wrote the bureau for furnished) and continues in reviewing workmen (which, of course, were not

later conditions in the munitions industry:

The commercial employment bureaus of the country have no supply of unemployed technicians. Many disturbances and suspensions which war material factories have had to suffer, and which it was not always possible to remove quickly, but which on the contrary often lead to long strikes, may be attributed to the energetic propaganda of the employment bureau.

Von Igel's close connection with the enterprise is indicated by a number of items. For example, there is the notation that H. Hanson had established a Liebau branch office in Detroit, and an entry of £12 paid to Dr. Max Niven, Chicago, in February, 1916, for the "labour fund," and an inquiry, addressed by a bureau official to von Igel, asking whether the Bosch Magneto Works manufactured fuses for shells, the bureau having evidently been applied to for workmen for the Bosch plant. A reply in the negative stated that the company is "universally known for its friendly attitude toward Germans."

Several lines of communication between the German Diplomatic Service and the Irish revolutionary movement are in

dicated in the captured documents. John Devoy of New York City, now editor of The Gaelic American, was one of the active agents of this connection. Significant entries appear here and there; references to messages from the German Embassy at Washington and the German Consulate at New York; mention of a secret code to be employed in communicating with him and of a "cipher Devoy"; also a notation, the details of which remain undiscovered, concerning " communication re manufacture hand grenades." Devoy it was who acted, for a time at least, as go-between for the German Secret Service dealings with Sir Roger Casement, executed by the British for treason. There are several references to money and messages for Sir Roger Casement, or, more briefly, "R. C.," and one record of a check for $1,000 for Casement, evidently handled by Devoy.

Devoy's intimate connection with the German cause is disclosed in two letters to Ambassador von Bernstorff, the text of which follows:

New York, April 8, 1916. The following communication from confidential man John Devoy was duly transmitted:

"Letter dated March 22, delayed by censor, seems conclusive that first messenger arrived safe with proposal to send supplies and that cable was suppressed. Second also safe. Third, with change of plans, due about April 15."

John Devoy further requests that the following telegram be dispatched to Sir Roger Casement:

"No letter now possible. All funds sent home. Sister and M.'s family well." Should Sir Roger be absent or ill, then J. D. requests that the telegram be delivered to John Montieth.

(Signed)

K. N. St. To His Excellency the Imperial Ambassador, Count von Bernstorff, Washington, D. C.

New York, April 15, 1916. Herewith inclosed a report received by us today from John Devoy. Kindly order further steps to be taken. The important parts of the report were sent there today per telegram. (S. copy.) (Signed) K. N. St. To the Imperial Ambassador, Count von Bernstorff, Washington, D. C. Though this incriminating evidence was in its possession, the Department of Justice has refuted the charge that it told the British Government of the Irish

revolutionary plot and Casement's part in it. Department of Justice officials admit that the papers relating to Casement were sent to Washington the night before Casement's arrest was reported, but they were not received by the Attorney General until the afternoon of the day upon which the British authorities picked up the Irish leader, and were not presented to the State Department until 7 o'clock that evening. Meanwhile, Casement had spent several hours in an Irish prison.

Justice Cohalan Involved

It is not improbable that the signature at the bottom of the extraordinary message which follows is in the "cipher Devoy " referred to in the von Igel papers. New York Supreme Court Justice Daniel F. Cohalan has long been prominent in Irish-American circles. The communication as translated into von Igel's record is typewritten, line for line, below a cipher, except for the signature, which remains untranslated from the original cipher figures. It is dated New York, April 17, 1916, numbered 335-16, and inscribed at the top "Very Secret."

No. 335-16. Very secret.

New York, April 17, 1916. Judge Cohalan requests the transmission of the following remarks:

"The revolution in Ireland can only be successful if supported from Germany, otherwise England will be able to suppress it, even though it be only after hard struggles. Therefore help is necessary. This should consist, primarily, of aerial attacks in England and a diversion of the fleet simultaneously with Irish revolution. Then, if possible, a landing of troops, arms, and ammunition in Ireland, and possibly some officers from Zeppelins. This would enable the Irish ports be closed against England and the establishment of stations for submarines on the Irish coast and the cutting off of the supply of food for England. The services of the revolution may therefore decide the war."

He asks that a telegram to this effect be sent to Berlin.

5132 8167 0230. To His Excellency Count von Bernstorff, Imperial Ambassador, Washington,

D. C.

Along this same line is a code message by wireless to Banker Max Moebius, Oberwallstrasse, Berlin, which is inter