Secret armies; the new technique of Nazi warfare

i

Exposing Hitler's Undeclared War on the Americas

The Book and the Author

John L. Spivak comes closer to the popular conception
of the ace journalist than any other living writer. Com
bining the instinct of a detective with the resourceful
ness 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 sev
eral 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 sen
sational 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 War/ore

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

60
Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PACE

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

PACE

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 Ill

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-Berliri-Tokyo axis and operating against the peace and
security of the United States. A scrutiny of the Nazi Fifth
Column* in a few European countries, especially in Czechoslo
vakia just before that Republic was turned over to Germany's

* 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 de
scribe the various fascist and Nazi organizations operating within the borders
of non-fascist nations.

8 SECRET ARMIES

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
dearer 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 in
fluence of fascism throughout the world, that I thought it ad
visable 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 exag
gerated, 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.

Czechoslovakia — Before The Carving

IT IS PRETTY GENERALLY ADMITTED ROW that the Munich "peace"
gave Germany industrial and military areas essential to fur
ther 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 in
evitably 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 omeri 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 pre
ceding 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 Czechoslo
vakia but in other countries. What I learned of those few, how-

10 SECRET ARMIES

ever, 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 an
nounced 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 propa
ganda and build a machine which would be invaluable in time
of war.

In a few instances I learned the details of the Nazis' inex
orable 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-Ger
man 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.* She will
give you further instructions."

Oertel nodded. It was his first important espionage job— as
signed to him after the twenty-five-year-old secret agent had fin
ished 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

* 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.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA BEFORE THE CARVING 1 1

training in politically disruptive work in anti-fascist organiza
tions across the Czech border where he had posed as a German
emigre\ 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— burglarly with arms, attempted murder— some non-po
litical 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 hand
kerchief. 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

12 SECRET ARMIES

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 cheer
fully on the way to meet friends for late afternoon coffee. Occa
sionally 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 fore
head 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. De
liver 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.* Besides his ministerial work, the Reverend Smith led

* The Rev. Smith returned to England when he learned that the Czecho-
slovakian secret police were watching him. At the present writing he had not
returned to his church in Prague.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA BEFORE THE CARVING 13

an amateur orchestra group giving free concerts for German
emigres. On his clerical recommendation, he got German "em
igre" women into England as house servants for British govern
ment officials and army officers.

The far-flung Gestapo network in Czechoslovakia concen
trated much of its activities along the former German-Czech bor
der. 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 emigre
anti-fascist groups. The country, before it was cut to pieces and
even now, is honeycombed with Gestapo agents sent from Ger
many 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 im
portant assignment of disrupting anti-fascist groups— of creating
opposition within organizations having large memberships in or
der 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 in
vaded, and it enabled the Nazis to make wholesale arrests im
mediately 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

14 SECRET ARMIES

St. A secondary headquarters, in the Dcutscher 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, liv
ing 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 immigra
tion 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 pass
ports 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

CZECHOSLOVAKIA BEFORE THE CARVING 15

and numbers i A 1444. 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 Ges
tapo 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. i embraces Silesia with headquar
ters at Breslau; No. 2, Saxony, with headquarters at Dresden;
and No. 3, Bavaria, with headquarters at Munich. After the an
nexation 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
of antries 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 pass
port title page, it is a sign to Gestapo representatives and Con
sulates that the bearer is an agent who crossed the border hur
riedly without time to get the regular numbers and letters from

16 SECRET ARMIES

Gestapo headquarters. The agent is given this means of tempo
rary identification by the border Gestapo chief.

Also, whenever immigration authorities find a German pass
port issued to the bearer for less than five years and then ex
tended 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.

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 esti
mating 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 prom
ises 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 dis
tinguished 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 Col
umn, working in dinner jackets and evening gowns, influenced
the powerful personages involved to chart a course which sacri
ficed 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

17

18 SECRET ARMIES

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 horse
shoe stone staircase to receive them.

The small but carefully selected group of guests had been in
vited "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 Parlia
ment and the British people do not know of these decisions,
some of which the Chamberlain government has already car
ried 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 As tors 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

ENGLAND'S CLIVEDEN SET 19

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 Ger
man industrialists and financiers like the Krupps and the Thys-
sens supported Hitler primarily in order to crush the German
trade-union and political movements which were in the late
igao'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 news
papers in the world, the London Times and the London Ob
server. In the past these papers, whose influence cannot be ex
aggerated, 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

20 SECRET ARMIES

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 en
tertained 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, tne 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 inter
ests), Lord Swinton (railroads, power, with subsidiaries in Ger
many, Italy, etc.), Sir Samuel Hoare (real estate, insurance, etc.),

ENGLAND'S CLIVEDEN SET 21

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 /. G. Farbenindus-
trie, 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 coun
tries 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 em
phatically 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 Sec
retary was in Brussels on a state matter, the Prime Minister
announced that Halifax would visit the Ftihrer. Eden was furi
ous 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' draw
ing 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

22 SECRET ARMIES

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 Ex
traordinary had been instructed not to get into any arguments;
so he nodded and in his best pacifying tone murmured, "Natur
ally. 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 Eng
land 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 esti
mated 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 As tor invited some

ENGLAND'S CLIVEDEN SET 23

guests for a week-end at Cliveden. The Prime Minister of Eng
land 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 "unidenti
fied" 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, Cham
berlain 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 with
drawal 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 Fiihrer
was displeased with the English press attacks upon him, Nazis
and Nazi aggressions. Der Fiihrer 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

24 SECRET ARMIES

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 cen
sorship" at what amounted to an order from Hitler relayed
through England's Foreign Office. The explanation the news
papers 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 govern
ment 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 Am
bassador to France. Sir Eric was instructed to get hold of M.
Chautemps, the French Premier at the time, and ask that Chau-
temps 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.

ENGLAND S CLIVEDEN SET

25

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 emis
sary 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 Intel
ligence 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 Eng
land 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-con-
trolled Times and Observer, the Nazi and the Italian press simul
taneously 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 For
eign Secretary's health. There were sighs, long faces, sad regrets,
but Eden stuck to his post in the hope that he could do some-

26 SECRET ARMIES

thing. On February 19, Hitler, tired of waiting, bluntly de
manded 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 Intelli
gence 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 Hun
garian 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.

ENGLAND'S CLIVEDEN SET 27

Five days after Austria was invaded, on March 16, at 3:30
in the afternoon, Lord Halifax personally summoned the Czecho-
slovakian 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

28 SECRET ARMIES

chairs. The moment the music stops everyone dives for the near
est chair leaving the extra person standing and subject to the hil
arious 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 de
fense 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 bank
ing background but managed "to look only a little porky" as
one expressed it afterward. Suddenly the music stopped. Every
one 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,

ENGLAND'S CLIVEDEN SET 29

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 arous
ing 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 Eng
land 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 arma
ment industry, have already stated publicly that unless the work
ers 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

SO SECRET ARMIES

for "national organization" and the wisdom of "national regis
tration." 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 in
trigues, 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 democ
racy, 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.

Ill

France's Secret Fascist Army

NEITHER HITLER nor Mussolini could have foreseen the devel
opment 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 ex
pected war broke out, France could be disrupted by a wide
spread internal rebellion, not only would she be weakened on
the battlefield but fascism might even be victorious in the Re
public. 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 in-

31

32 SECRET ARMIES

structed. 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
Mile. 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, Francois Metenier, a well-known French engineer and in
dustrialist, 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 Miche-
lin Tire Works at Clermont-Ferrand where Metenier was an im
portant 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 or
dered lunch by 'phone but I thought I would await your presence
on the wine."

"Oh, anything you order," said Locuty with an effort at casual-
ness.

"Yes, you order the wine," said the stenographer.

"Garfon, a bottle of St. Julien, Chateau Leoville-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

FRANCE'S SECRET FASCIST ARMY 33

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. Me
tenier, 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 sig
nificantly and said she wanted to see him again.

Metenier drove Locuty to an office building where he intro
duced him to a man he called "Leon"— actually Alfred Macon,
concierge of a building which Metenier and others used as head
quarters 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

34 SECRET ARMIES

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 instruc
tions 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 gen
darmes standing near one of the buildings were killed.

Immediately after the bombs exploded, the Employers' Con
federation 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 Surete
Nationale, the French Scotland Yard, opened an intensive in
vestigation 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

FRANCE'S SECRET FASCIST ARMY 35

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 seri
ously 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 them
selves 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 es
pionage 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 un
known except to its Supreme Council and probably to the Ger
man and Italian Intelligence Divisions. Lists of names totaling
eighteen thousand men were turned up by the Surete 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 (blow
ing down the walls of the buildings where the fortresses were
hidden would have given them command of streets, squares and

36 SECRET ARMIES

government buildings) indicate supervision by high military
officials.

When contractors buy enormous quantities of cement for dug
outs, when butchers' and bakers' lorries rattle over ancient cob
blestones 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 Surete
Nationale should not get wind of it.

As far back as September, 1936, the Surete 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 per
mitted 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 build
ing 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 re
ceiving radios, knew that some were within the shadow of mili
tary 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

FRANCE'S SECRET FASCIST ARMY 37

the high officials and individuals to whom their investigations
led, either did not dare go further with it, or, if they did, sup
pressed 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 Re
generation." The Cagoulards' activities are divided into broad
general lines, each directed by an individual in complete com
mand and embracing:

Buying war materials within France and smuggling war ma
terials 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 Le
gion of Honor and a reserve Lieutenant-Colonel in the French
Army.

The Cagoulards are still very active. Members are being re
cruited 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

38 SECRET ARMIES

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 for
tified post for training. One of these posts discovered by the
Surete 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 for
tress with enough explosives to blow the whole street to smith
ereens. 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 simi
larly armed but with a machine gun instead of a sub-machine
gun. Three cells form a unit, three units a battalion, three bat
talions 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 Govern
ments 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. No
tices of meetings, drill and rifle practice are issued verbally, and

FRANCE'S SECRET FASCIST ARMY 39

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; Commis
sariat; 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

40 SECRET ARMIES

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 demo
cratic 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 in
dustries 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 industrial
ists 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 es
timated 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

FRANCE'S SECRET FASCIST ARMY 41

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 emer
gency uses. The money is deposited in the Societe 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 Commenda-
tore Boccalaro, head of the Italian Government's Arsenal in
Genoa. One of his specialties is the smuggling of arms into for
eign 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

42 SECRET ARMIES

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
Eugene 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 Surete 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 docu
ments 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 Fuhrer 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

43

44 SECRET ARMIES

New York with a mysterious cargo consigned to one Armeria
Estrada. As soon as she docked, the cargo was quickly trans
ferred 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 Potosi 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 Potosi, it was met by an
elderly, mustached German named Baron Ernst von Merck, who
took the shipment to General Saturnino Cedillo, former gov
ernor of the state* 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 Potosi, the farm
implements turned out to be dynamite.

Von Merck, who has been Cedillo's right-hand man, was dur
ing the World War a German spy stationed in Brussels. A mem
ber of Cedillo's stafff he traveled constantly between San Luis
Potosi, 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.

* In May, 1938, Cedillo launched an abortive rebellion and is now being
hunted by the Mexican government.

t After Cedillo's defeat von Merck fled to New York and went to Germany.

DYNAMITE UNDER MEXICO 45

Guatemala, just south of Mexico, is the most thoroughly or
ganized fascist country in Central or South America. Its chief
industries, coffee and bananas, are virtually controlled by Ger
mans, 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 Jose", 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 Govern
ment will instruct its air squadron to go to Campeche and fly
forty miles north of the Rio Hondo and a little west of Quin-
tana 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

46 SECRET ARMIES

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, Jos£ 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 unidenti
fied Americans. On February 16, 1938, Jose Rebey and Fran
cisco 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 Sonera'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 con
sisted 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

DYNAMITE UNDER MEXICO 47

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 Cen
tral 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 net
work 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 propa
ganda 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 Lazaro Cardenas, however, has stated his dislike
of fascism on several occasions. Since Germany, Japan and Italy

48 SECRET ARMIES

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, tre
mendous potentialities for sabotage.

Hence, Mexico is today being battered by pro-fascist propagan
da 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 organ
ized secretly because of the government's unfriendly attitude
toward fascism. The bund operates as the Deutsche Volksgemein-
schaft 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 propa
ganda 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 spe
cial effort is being made to win the sympathy of the people.
Meanwhile Yocupicio caches arms in Ures and the bland Jap
anese continue charting the harbors and coast lines.

DYNAMITE UNDER MEXICO 49

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 organi
zation. 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 organi
zation 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 Com
munists barred their way. When the pitched battle was over, five
Gold Shirts were dead, some sixty persons wounded, and Rod
riguez 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 im
mediately, 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

50 SECRET ARMIES

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 con
ference Rodriguez went to Los Angeles, met Schwinn, and pro
ceeded 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 Jose" Joaquin Herrera, apartment i-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 attache" to the German Lega
tion. A civilian attache 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 "pleas
ure jaunts" about Mexico. Northe is seldom at the Nazi Lega
tion. He is more apt to be found in Sonora, where Yocupicio
is storing arms and where the Japanese fishing fleet is active, or

DYNAMITE UNDER MEXICO 51

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 attache, before com
ing 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 Hein-
rich 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 extraditionv
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 resi
dence 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.

52 SECRET ARMIES

He does it by being in charge of arms smuggling from Ger
many to Mexican fascists. During the latter part of December,
1937, ne 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 Govern
ment for Japanese fishing experts to conduct "scientific explora
tions" along Mexico's Pacific Coast in return for teaching Mexi
cans 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

DYNAMITE UNDER MEXICO 53

fishing boats, the "Minatu Maru," the "Minowa Mam" 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 com
pany 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 "ex
ploring," 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 peace
ful ends in Mexico is slowly dawning upon the Mexican Govern
ment. Influential government and trade-union leaders have re
peatedly shown their dislike of Nazism and fascism and have
urged propaganda against them.

On the morning of October 5, 1937, Freiherr Riedt von Col-
lenberg, 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 Jap
anese 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

54 SECRET ARMIES

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 Action, 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. Jose" Luis Noriega, Secretary of the Na
tionalist 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 "dis
tinguished comrades," without mentioning names, and signed by

DYNAMITE UNDER MEXICO 55

both Escobar and Ovidio Pedfero Valenzuela, President of the
Action Civica Nationalists 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 Cdrdenas 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 every
one 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 Cardenas 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 fas
cists decided to send a special messenger to Francisco Franco in
Spain (November 30, 1937) with the request that Franco inter
cede to get money from Hitler to help overthrow Cardenas,
since the Nazi minister was too scared to cooperate. The special
messenger was Fernando Ostos Mora. He never got there.

Surrounding the Panama Canal

r-piHERE is A LITTLE SHIRT SHOP in Colon, Panama, on Calle loa
JL 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 dis
trict 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 wan
dering 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 particu
larly anyone who enters or leaves it. Usually he snaps your pic
ture 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

56

SURROUNDING THE PANAMA CANAL 57

to the shop proper. I examined the assortment in the case, count
ing 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 busi
ness 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 di
rectly 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 photo
graphs of extraordinary military and naval importance. I saw
four of them.

The charming little seamstress is one of the most capable of the

58 SECRET ARMIES

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 im
portance. Her husband, who entered Panama without a Pana
manian 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 ad
venturers 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 cap
ture 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

SURROUNDING THE PANAMA CANAL 59

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 photo
graphing everything in sight, not only around the Canal, but for
hundreds of miles north and south of it; and the Japanese fish
ing fleet has taken soundings of the waters and harbors along
the coast. Since the conclusion of the Japanese-Nazi "anti-Com
munist pact," Nazi agents have been sent to German colonies
in Central and South America to organize them, carry on propa
ganda 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 Ameri
can 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 stand
point. 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 Jos<§, Costa Rica, flew to Managua, Nicaragua, to witness

60 SECRET ARMIES

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 dicta
torships, 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.

SURROUNDING THE PANAMA CANAL 61

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 sub
merged 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 mys
terious 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.

62 SECRET ARMIES

"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 ex
plained.

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 per
mission 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 ban
ning 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 receiv
ing 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 Sep
tember, 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.

SURROUNDING THE PANAMA CANAL 63

Shortly thereafter the Japanese millionaire appeared at Mana
gua 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 sus
pected espionage and with taking pictures in prohibited areas.

I mention this incident because the luxurious boat was regis
tered 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 Pun-
tarenas, 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 vanish
ing out to sea with her wireless crackling constantly.

Some seventy fishing vessels operating out of San Diego, Cali
fornia, 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

64 SECRET ARMIES

Cloud," "Magellan," "Oipango," "San Lucas," "Santa Mar
garita," "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 communica
tion for messages which could be relayed from one to another
and in a few moments reach their destination.

In Col6n 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 Col6n. 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 hair
cuts, 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, photo
graphing the Canal, the islands around the Canal, the coast line,
and the topography of the region.

SURROUNDING THE PANAMA CANAL 65

They live in Panama with a sort of permanence, but nine out
of ten do not have families— even those advanced in years. Peri
odically 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 outly
ing 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 be
came 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 ac
cept barbers of other nationalities but will allow Japanese fish
ermen 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 an
other extraordinary custom. It has a special fund to put com
petitors 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 industryl

At these meetings the barber Sonada, who is only a hired

66 SECRET ARMIES

hand, sits beside the Japanese Consul at the head of the room.
Umimoto remains standing until Sonada is seated. When an
other barber, T. Takano, who runs a little hole-in-the-wall shdp
and lives at 10 Avenida B, shows up, both Sonada and the Con
sul 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 Colon, Casa
No. 11.

Way back in 1917 Kubayama was a barefoot Japanese fisher
man 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 of
ficers 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 ex
tended only to a high ranking officer of the Japanese navy.

Today Kubayama works closely with the Japanese Consul.

SURROUNDING THE PANAMA CANAL 67

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 peri
odically or come with several passports all prepared. There is, for
instance, Shoichi Yokoi, who commutes between Japan and Pana
ma without any commercial reasons. On June 7, 1934, the Jap
anese 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 per
mission for all, he applied only for a Panamanian visa (Septem
ber 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 pass
port and overflowed onto several extra pages. Shoichi or Masa
kazu 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 business
men 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

68 SECRET ARMIES

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, pro
tected 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 Jose", Costa Rica; the next he made a hurried
special flight to Bogota, 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 Jose. Sotanis,
A former Italian artillery officer, is a nattily dressed, slender man
in his early forties who apparently does nothing in San Jose ex
cept 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 Min
ister 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

SURROUNDING THE PANAMA CANAL 69

Finance and the Vice-president of the government bank took
trips to Japan.

The ink was scarcely dry on the agreement to permit the Japa
nese to experiment in cotton growing before a Japanese steamer
appeared in Puntarenas with twenty-one young and alert Japa
nese and a bag of cotton seed. They were "laborers," Wakabay-
ashi 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
Jos^— 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 Chim-
bota, 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 Waka
bayashi 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

70 SECRET ARMIES

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 Colon
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 pur
poses 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.

SURROUNDING THE PANAMA CANAL 71

"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-Ausldndische
Nazi Genossenschafts Bund, with the understanding that it func
tion secretly. The list of members was to be controlled by
Neumann.

Scharpp explained that secrecy was advisable to avoid antago
nizing 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 1"

Scharpp nodded slowly. "He is generally believed to be anti-
Nazi. His partner spent twelve years in Japan and speaks Jap
anese 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 mem
bers of the Bund in Panama, arrived singly and in small groups

72 SECRET ARMIES

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,1
said the little Consul apologetically.

The others understood. The Japanese were too shrewd to dis
cuss 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 propa
ganda 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 coun
try in the Americas, it was and is subject to special concentra
tion by secret Nazi agents.

The first threads spun spread out in many directions, with
propaganda as the base from which to broaden espionage activi
ties. 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. Emer
son 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 repre
sentative of the German Consul General. The rent paid was.
nominal and in at least one instance, to avoid its being traced,

73

74 SECRET ARMIES

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 advertise
ment 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 cover
ing assignments for newspapers and magazines and always brag
ging about his Americanism and his "patriotism." One of his
great boasts was that he was with Roosevelt's Rough Riders dur
ing 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, Emer
son launched the "Friends of Germany." * This organization was
the chief disseminator of pro-Hitler and anti-democratic propa
ganda in the United States, but the Colonel directed the propa
ganda 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 key
notes 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

* Subsequently changed to "Friends of the New Germany" and then to the
current "German-American Bund."

SECRET AGENTS ARRIVE IN AMERICA 75

for explicit instructions on how to carry on propaganda without
antagonizing the entire country.

In October, 1933, Royal Scott Gulden (who has no connec
tion 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 at
tract followers. The country was in a serious economic crisis with
considerable unrest throughout the land. Both Hitler and Mus
solini 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 £he 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" * had been born and Royal Scott Gulden appointed Secre
tary 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

* Still functioning on a minor scale. The Fifth Column has since these
early beginnings established much more efficient groups.

76 SECRET ARMIES

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 Com
pany. Brooks, because of his position, was close in the confi
dences 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
ivent 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 or
ganized 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.

SECRET AGENTS ARRIVE IN AMERICA

77

78 SECRET ARMIES

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 propa
ganda 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,* at that

* Following passage of the new 1938 law requiring all foreign agents to
register, Orgell registered with the State Department as a German agent.

SECRET AGENTS ARRIVE IN AMERICA 79

time head of the "Friends of Germany," through whom the
propaganda was distributed to various branches of the organiza
tion throughout the country. In those days Orgell lived at 606
West i i5th Street, New York City,f 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, consti
tuted 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 every
one in the library and seemed satisfied. He caught the steward's

f He now lives at Great Kills, Staten Island, N. Y.

80 SECRET ARMIES

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 con
tractor 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 com
mand, he received his orders direct from Franz Seldte, subse
quently 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, Phila
delphia, 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 sup
plied him with a chief assistant, Carl Brunkhorst. It was Brunk-
horst's job to deliver the secret letters. Nazi uniforms for Ameri
can Storm Troopers were smuggled into this country off Ger
man ships by Paul Bante who lived at 186 East 9$rd Street, New

SECRET AGENTS ARRIVE IN AMERICA 81

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 capital
ize 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 em
ployers by promising to inform them about the threat of revolu
tion—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. Pick
ings 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

82 SECRET ARMIES

^tttwrtattt ^^^S^SK^ sto**8****1

NA1

CHICAGO. ILL.

"jr. fiarry F. sieber. Twarurer.
Silver Le/dcn of Amertc* .

Datr 1'r. $i«%er:

In Vecponse to your*
addressed to ^..L. Peterson on
)ser 28. we cuTMVf you" a prior of
sixty cents per copy In quantity lots
of tht "Protocdle*.

As for "Halt. >ntil«J
and Salute tht Jew", sane can be haJ
at ten cents per copy, in quantity
lot* or fiflcen cents apiece.

EAJ/BP

43550. L'icbican AT«. . R.2212

Showing the type of literature peddled by patrioteer Harry A. Jung.

SECRET AGENTS ARRIVE IN AMERICA 83

of Germany." Jung likewise discovered the "menace of the Jew"
and peddled it for all it was worth.

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, collect
ing 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.

o

VII

Spies and American "Patriots"

NCE 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 swal
lowed 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 Com
mittee 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 instruc
tions 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" Ameri
can groups working with Nazi agents (without much money
after the Congressional Committee's exposes) suddenly found
themselves possessed of more than enough capital with which to

84

NAZI SPIES AND AMERICAN "PATRIOTS" 85

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 medi
ums was established by Nazi agents in a carefully hidden print
ing plant.

MENE, MCNEt TCXEL» UPBHftRON

MJEWISOisOOALPERIL

GET RID OF ROOSEVELT
AND HIS JEWS

ELIMINATE JEWS FAOM PUBLIC OFFICE

SMASH JEW-DOBUNATON OF
W.P.A. and S.R.A.

AND ALL STATE AND COUNTY CHARITY RELIEF

R*d UK) *M^ *» Protect* of tbe EUen of Zm.
Aa Exposure of J^-Conauaat CoMptncjr.

JW t»fan«.H.«. A44M0 H, *•»*•• WUt. OMH F. O. BM I EMI F <

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., Chi
cago, 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.

86 SECRET ARMIES

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 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 along
side 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 masquerad
ing 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

NAZI SPIES AND AMERICAN "PATRIOTS" 87

—well, let me give a brief sketch of his activities before he
became a Nazi agent:

In 1922, a Russian emigre, born in Petrograd and christened
Peter Afanassieff or Aphanassieff, came to the United States seek
ing his fortune, preferably in the form of a wealthy heiress. As
an ordinary run-of-the-mill Afanassieff, he was just an unem
ployed 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 pen
manship 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 Kushu
bue 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

88 SECRET ARMIES

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 be
came Jung's secret agent No. 31 (Jung is No. i 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 post
script in his own handwriting. A reproduction of one of No. 31*5
reports to the No. i 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 with
out 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," * were Armstrong, Captain Vic
tor 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 be
hind 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.

* Gissibl left for Stuttgart, Germany, and leadership was taken over by his
brother, Peter.

NAZI SPIES AND AMERICAN "PATRIOTS

89

Cr*J*l
Dea» * J

rTw« of tvelvth instant rjieiYed and ttr.Shera deilrered your packat*o «* Us*
ftaturday.

Keferlng to «y of n/lntt.Iwae able to a«oaplieh only part of eJob.Mr.Thoapeon
»n<l VnTolllafV* «r8 °«* of tomco I'll try to g*t in tueh altX both on Monday,
6atur<i«y a.avlhad ono hoof and 20n.talk with editor of O.R'.Herald Mr. Prank •?«*«.
H« read ty cr«I«silal« and afttr eoT«r>iac a. thile w« c(ra*4 upon that »o«ethlat \
| rtould be do» and <o«« In a hwry.Ileft with that eh«p our 5 do*»«nt»( legal «U«).X
IBWBO oa Footer .A.T^I.F. progra«e/Blua/C.P.U.B.A.chart.Fa«lat the fe«te eiid TigHant.
I thMc it win be food ide* if you ••nd hln af«« liaea aentloninf ho* glad you are
e.t.e.6am« erenin« I reeeived inTitatlon to attend diner at Dr.Ferri* K. Smith (6J9 Plof- »
•cnrlh bl«d. Grand Rapidt.Hich. )Ht la a rery prominent ,rieh and Intemationaly toom
?l«4i«k 6wrg«ry epeeialivt.In'v honour we had ? bottlea of ehe^tlgn and other thln«»
| bMitfe.Dlner party ended at 4.?0 n.a.8unday.Moat iotereating part of it that Hr«.8<oith
I Juet fe* w«*ke ago eaae baek froa O.S.f.R.Aere abe apead 10 daya In Moa«M.fhe i» very
I ««llTereed In BoleheTik end of our problem* But alao 'very auch like to find outother
I •tRT-fi?g.^o laet nlte aha pledged henelf to A.T.I.P.and will* aigte card on *y return
I »aok to Grand RapUa.Mr.Oerry D.FettiboM of 306 Lafayette Ave.M.K.-ei*«ed c«rdia»t
I Tueeday but did not paid «oney-will Collect later.

Fpeeklng of |£79 accoHlng to opinion of Or.S.O.he lakee backbone ae an orj«nii-r.^
I nl-.-ne nwaUr that I • Quoting aoM ana elee opinion.! can not have of ay ow in thi*
I CMC 'coe« I a., hi. »o littl*.

» Toaurro* 1'lUry U *ee Toin«fiena and ala«_Tnompeom.Then in en E»«nlng to •••1i

I again «r. f.rf.fcith..

I T o » - * -c »

Awloa.

Letter written by secret agent No. 31 (Peter Afanassieff, alias Prince Kushubue,
alias Peter V. Armstrong) to No. i (Harry A. Jung) .

90

SECRET ARMIES

**tlln »» 40, Jn dtn Jtltea

Herrn

Peter V. Armstrong

i.Pa. Patriotic Publishing Co.

C h j c a K o .

Dear Sir,

By Mr. Lilienfeld we were informed that you are interested in
the english edition of our book:. Herman Pehst. BolBchewism
Jewfy» w« beg to^ inform ^ou^ that the right of edition of 'this

later on we will deduct the sale every half a

ffe-'await witn Interest your answer

Yours faithfully

ttibeUmgen*

Letter showing contact between Peter V. Armstrong (the White Russian ex-
convict Peter Afanassieff) and German publishers of anti-Semitic literature.

He was listed by the Nazis and the White Russians as a good
sucker because he had contributed money to Jung.

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

NAZI SPIES AND AMERICAN "PATRIOTS" 91

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 Pub
lishing 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 be
fore 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* died on October
i 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

* Before McFadden died, I published evidence that while he was a member
of Congress he worked with Nazi agents in this country.

92 SECRET ARMIES

taxes or the unemployed worker in an industrial center who
couldn't find a job did not know history any too well nor under
stand the workings of the economic system; and when they were
told by newspapers brought to them by the United States Gov
ernment mails that their economic difficulties were due to a
Jewish-Communist plot, that Roosevelt was a Jew and was con
trolled 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 Con
gressional Committee, but it stopped only for a brief period. The
Nazi ships which bring in propaganda also bring secret instruc
tions 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. i5th 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

NAZI SPIES AND AMERICAN "PATRIOTS" 93

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 govern
ment 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,* a comparatively young
man in his early thirties, ruddy-faced and with a thin, quivering
mustache on his upper lip. This little Fiihrer's office is just off
the meeting hall and adjoins the small bookstore where the pur
chaser 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 im
mediately (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 Ger-

* 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.

94 SECRET ARMIES

many, 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 explana
tion.

"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* says that there is propa
ganda coming, but he was never able to prove any of his state
ments."

"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."

* Congressman Samuel Dickstein. The McCormick Congressional Committee
was frequently referred to as the "Dickstein Committee" because Dickstein
had introduced the resolution for the investigation.

NAZI SPIES AND AMERICAN "PATRIOTS" 95

"Doesn't he bring batches of World Service and other propa
ganda 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 per
mitted 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 Mon
day 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 re
ports 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 inter
rupted.

"Maybe I can refresh your memory. That was the evening the
Captain took a lady from Beverly Hills, to the first mate's cabin

96 SECRET ARMIES

—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 sail
ing 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*— 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.

* 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.

NAZI SPIES AND AMERICAN "PATRIOTS" 97

"You intend to publish them?" he asked, a cunning look ap
pearing 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 mutuall" 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 dissemina
tion 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
Billow— "

For the first time since the interview began Schwinn sat up
right in his chair as if I had struck him. All the other subjects
had left him slightly disturbed but still with an obvious sense

98 SECRET ARMIES

that he was not on particularly dangerous ground. But at the
mention of Von Billow'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,* 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

"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 instruc
tions 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,-)- 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 An
geles for conferences with Schwinn, Von Biilow 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

* Von Bulow has since sold his home and moved into the El Cortez Hotel
in San Diego.
f At that time working for Henry Ford.

NAZI SPIES AND AMERICAN "PATRIOTS" 99

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
trackl"

"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 Con
sul 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 ceil
ing. "He was a Tyrolian peasant boy," he said without looking

100 SECRET ARMIES

at me. "A boy traveling around the world; you know, just chisel
ing 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 Fran
cisco 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 Jap
anese 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 ex
change 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 Biilow'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?"

NAZI SPIES AND AMERICAN "PATRIOTS" 101

"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 Ameri
can organization—"

Schwinn nodded without admitting it verbally.

"And since you throw out all Germans who are not Ameri
can 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.

o

VIII

Henry Ford and Secret Nazi Activities

NE OF THE CHIEF NAZI propagandists in the United States
recently ran in the United States Senate primaries in Kan
sas 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 Ger
many 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 news
paperman, 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 i, 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

102

HENRY FORD AND SECRET NAZI ACTIVITIES 103

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 liveli
hood 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 inter
ested 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 furni
ture, 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

104

SECRET ARMIES

began to harangue his audiences about the "menace of the Jews
and the Catholics-."

Then one day, the Reverend Gerald B. Winrod suddenly
found himself possessed of enough money to go to Germany.

Account cards for the Reverend Gerald B. Winrod in a Wichita department
store, showing his straitened financial circumstances during the early thirties.

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 pub
lisher.

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 dis
covery that the German people loved Hitler and that only "Jew
ish influence in high circles of certain governments is making it

HENRY FORD AND SECRET NAZI ACTIVITIES 105

impossible for Germany to carry on normal trade and financial
relations with other countries."

In this period of his new-found prosperity he established con
tacts 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 ap
paratus 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 pur
chases—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 Pro
fessor. 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 Sep
meier, Winrod went to Washington. I also went to Washington
and found that the Reverend was calling at the German Em
bassy. 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 Fea
ture 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 per
sonal 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

106

SECRET ARMIES

PRESENTS Ready to be .Distributed; Washington is once more a tcene
of bustling activity. Apartment houses and hotels are crowded to cap*-"
city. Congressmen, Senators, their wives, families, and secretarial
help, are pouring in from every part of the country.

The President comes bearing gifts. For weeks, he and his helpert
have been preparing presents for distribution to members of the House
and Senate. It win be some time, however, before the nation's duly
elected representatives learn of all they have in their stockings*
His message on the state of the Union probably gives only a hint.

Disclosures from nources cle*s to the inner sanctum of the White
House, reveal that the. dear public will do well to brace Itself for
some unique thrillo and shocks. New legislative measures, heretofore
unknown to the American people, are on the way.

On the evening of November 3rd, when it was definitely known that
the President had been reelected. he said from the front porch of hi0
home at Hyde Parlct "I am going back to Washington. During the Joyoua
Christmas eeaaon. 1 shall be preparing gift* for the next CongreM,*

HOW Much?
field of the 7
lief money.

'When the
be'required. a
fire from ceve

Morning Mr. Editor!

in* article*.

10 battle-
ng of «•••

.000 woull;
. he drew

»r stand

Sample of the "Capital News and Feature Service," in the establishment and
distribution of which the Reverend Gerald B. Winrod had a. hand.

appointment of Gilbert was the first indication that a friendly
cooperation had been established.

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

HENRY FORD AND SECRET NAZI ACTIVITIES 107

®fje $Bt£»ington Brings Snbepenbint

C. J. WB»B. PUM.ISMKM

»rt*inctsm frpring*, ftottty
January 19, 1937

Capital News 5 Feature Service
Ben Franklin Station
Box 771
Washington, D.C,

Gentlemen:.

We are in receipt of a service from you
entitled "Inside News from the Eatioss Capital,
by Dan Gilbert, which we do not recollect
ordering. We wiah to know the source of thia
service, if it is free, and why? We are running
a Washington Service and of course would have to
have some definite reason for changing, and if wt
started to use yours we would want the assurance
that it would come regularly, until advance notica
was received to stop it.

Respectfully,
CJWtGB

Letter from a small-town newspaper showing the kind of confusion caused by
the "Capitol News and Feature Service."

108 SECRET ARMIES

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 promi
nent 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 con
clusive 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 racket
eers 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."

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 organi
zations 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

HENRY FORD AND SECRET NAZI ACTIVITIES 109

and Los Angeles included material printed in Spanish for the
special use of General Nicholas 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 prepa
ration 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 be
came 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 i, 1935, moved to the Lankersheino
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.

110 SECRET ARMIES

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 Brunei 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 dictator
ship, 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 trans
lated almost literally, follows:

Sr. Manager of the Ford Company Nov- X9» ^SS-

City

Highly Esteemed Senor:

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 aoth 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.

NICHOLAS RODRIGUEZ C.
Supreme Commander.

HENRY FORD AND SECRET NAZI ACTIVITIES 111

• 3e la aaca ttia espe
cial r»co»«nda4i<5zu

Mbr

JULIO BBl

Garente da los Tallarea "Ford'

Colon! n Indue trial 9 D* ?•

ttuy afltlmado y flno Xugeniero y ami go:

Tengo ferdadero gustfr en praaontar a usted per
taedlo de £sta a IOB j^tonewa floaa Adolf o y don Gilberto Cautaito-
da anbos rauy apraciablesB, bijos do tta fntioo aalgo ofo. Los
idrenefi Castofieda aa*4ip*ofi da encontrar uuevos horlaontfta qua
lea eyudan a solucioaar la cot Id! ana lucha por la vida, haa
aeodido a af en domajoda da eyuda> y siendo ellofi por todos no*
tlvos dlgnoaNds logra? 0u nuble aspirocidn* yo no peroito do
la oanera mds atonta r«comendarlO3 a las finaa atenclonea de
t «ted, para que si a blen lo tlene se sirra inpartirlea su Ta
ll osa ayuda daudoles dpoxtuoldad da que trabajen en esa
tante plant a industrial.

Uuy obligado <ju«dar4 con ttated «I i» slrro atec-
dar la preaente sdpllca por lo que unticlpadamontci le
Bit

£>uyo muy ftfec^uosafflantft sarrldor y

Ofieiaas da 'A.B.H.* ^ 27 da aeptiaabra 4e 1934.

Letter from General Nicholas Rodriguez, Mexican fascist leader, to the Ford
manager in Mexico City, soliciting employment for two prote"g6s.

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

112 SECRET ARMIES

carbon copies I don't know, but I have a stack of his corres
pondence 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. Ac
tually 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 im
portance 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

HENRY FORD AND SECRET NAZI ACTIVITIES 1 1 3

novleabre 19 de

Sr, Oerente de la Cla. PCRD.
C 1 u d a d. "— "

Senor de ail repoeto:

La present* le sera entregad*

por el 3r. General JU K ALVAREZ C.. qulen v* con
to de saber si esa Compania podra facllltar dos aabalan •
olas que ya con antlolpaclon bablan ofrecldo, con objeto-
del trsnaporte de la Brigada Sanitaria Feaenil el dla 20*
del actual • las 8 a. a.

Antlclpandole las graolas por el favor de reft
renola, me et> grato repetlrae a sus ordenes coao su *fao.
<stto.» j 3.3.

WIOOLA3 RODRIGOS2 C.
Jefe Supreao*

8ttt*tarlo Otacrtl

LDCIO 0. VEFDIOOEL.

Letter from General Rodriguez to the Ford manager in Mexico City. The trans
lation is given on page no.

114 SECRET ARMIES

Rodriguez might be considered an unfortunate incident for which
Ford could not be held responsible. This would be a reason
able assumption if the Nazi-Rodriguez-Ford tie-up in Mexico
were an isolated case. The facts, however, show it is not.

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 espion
age 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 pub
licized 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 organ
izing 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
Fuhrer to merit the honor.

Simultaneously with Kuhn's intensified work, Ford's confi
dential 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 pro
test 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

HENRY FORD AND SECRET NAZI ACTIVITIES 115

O'»»S>0«t HI »DOU ••*••»»

The Silv» Battalion

General Nicholas Rodriguez,
El Paso. Texas.

October 4'. 1936

Dear General Roderiguez:

Upon receipt of this' letter

will you kindly comrmmicate 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 gled to defray all. expenses which
will include aero-plan both way* if you desire it. Wo
shall also offer you body guard 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, that you telegraph me (charges collect) upon receipt
of this letter so that 1 may make arrangements without
delay.

Fraternally yours.

A/p K

Letter from Henry Allen to General Rodriguez, showing the tie-up between
American and Mexican fascist organizations.

116 SECRET ARMIES

the newspaper. But instead of easing his editor out or giving
him some other job, he made him his confidential secretary.

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 appear
ance: 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 "Proto
cols" again. I bought a copy in the Detroit offices of the organi
zation, stamped with the name of the organization. The intro
duction 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* 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,

* The man who forged the "Protocols" originally and who subsequently
confessed to having done so.

HENRY FORD AND SECRET NAZI ACTIVITIES

117

Help Save America!

Don't Buy From JEWS!

HENRY* FORD

3)ec

intonation^
JuOe

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 dis
tributed.

it becomes a matter, it appears to me, of importance to the
people of this country and the Government of the United States.

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 uni
versities have joined the growing list of anti-democratic propa
gandists. Some of them are German subjects and do not dis
guise their pro-Nazi bias; others carry on their propaganda as a
"scholarly analysis" of the Hitler regime— with a fervor, how
ever, that smacks of the paid propagandist.

German exchange students, too, studying at some of our uni
versities, 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 Billow whose
home overlooked the naval base in San Diego and who was
constantly in conferences with Nazi agents. It was to Count von
Bulow, you recall, that Hermann Schwinn brought Schnee-
berger as soon as he arrived on his way to Japan, and von
Biilow took him around while Schneeberger photographed areas
in the military and naval zone. A number of very secret con
ferences were held while Schneeberger was on the West Coast,
in the home of Dr. K. Burchardi, a Los Angeles physician who

118

NAZI AGENTS IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES 119

visits Nazi ships with Schwinn and von Bulow (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 attempt
ing to spread the idea of totalitarian government and a bit of
race hatred as the bait to attract some elements in the popula
tion. Some of the professors and some of their activities follow
briefly:

Professor Frederick E. Auhagen, formerly of the German De
partment, 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 lectur
ing, 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

120 SECRET ARMIES

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 i, 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 civili
zation. With a fervor far removed from professorial calm, he
explained that American newspaper dispatches about the treat
ment 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 truel"

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 domina
tion 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

NAZI AGENTS IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES 121

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,* 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 illus
trations 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 his
tory 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 govern
ment find such willing cooperation from unscrupulous American
politicians.

* Not to be confused with Prof. Paul H. Douglas of the University c-
Chicago, a highly reputable scholar and a stanch defender of democracy.

122 SECRET ARMIES

Among those who worked with Hitler agents was Newton
Jenkins, director of the Coughlin-Lemke Third Party.* 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 where 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 con
ference 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 con
trolled 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

* Father Coughlin was finally reprimanded by the Vatican for his unpriestly
attacks upon the President.

NAZI AGENTS IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES 123

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 penni
less 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

124 SECRET ARMIES

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 Febru
ary 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 organiza
tions 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 dis
covered 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

NAZI AGENTS IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES

125

- O.E.T.

THE AMERICAN GUARD

Mr. Wamor W. feareco, Architect,
£ Rortb 4tfc hie«o A»*. ,-.-
Chicago, Illinoi*,

pear Ur.

Reoeired your request for 1 iterator*. Proa tiae to time, paa-
pfelets dealing with the Jewish-Oooaunistie problems will be sent to you. Extra
copies of especially interesting ones will be sent to you with request €tet
you distribute tbea ejaong your frisndsj there is no charge for any of those

ThA Am*rio«n (Kurd i« now being organited by se in the tut«»
of Illirv>ie and lUnneeoU, and Uter en the aotiwlUe* will be extended to.ot
stated •• well. The purpose !• to help oounteraet the underaining Influence
of Jews sjui ether edmainlsts,*nd to restore White rule here in AaerUa. Uo».
bers of the orgejiiution do not, for the tiae being, pay any fees or dues; re*
lianee is made entirely upon Toluntary contributions. - The asin activities
now center upon distribution of educational propagand*! aotire participation.
,in polities will start in * couple of months when, I hope, the organisation
of thle psrty hss been complete^.

Trusting that you will actively support the organi cation, I *»

P.O.Box 4$1, Chicago, Illinois

Letter by Olov E. Tietzow, showing typical methods of American fascists.

126 SECRET ARMIES

ones are hopefully struggling along in the expectation of bigger
and better and more patriotic days when the pickings will be
more than attractive.

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 "Ameri
canism" 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 Pub
lishing Company, Washington, D. C., the American Vigilant
Intelligence Federation, Chicago, 111., the Paul Reveres, Chicago,
111., the Industrial Defense Association, Boston, Mass., the Ameri
can Nationalists, Inc., New York, N. Y. and the American Na
tionalist Party, Los Angeles, Calif. There are a number of others,
but these are some of the most blatant.

The National Republican Company, 511 nth 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 incul
cate "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

NAZI AGENTS IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES 127

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 patri
otic 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 poli
ticians 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,

128 SECRET ARMIES

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 impos
ing 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 letter
head but additional letters of introduction from ex-Governor
Curley of Mass., ex-Senator Robinson of Indiana and Congress
man Martin Dies of Texas. The drummers wanted the Mayor
to introduce them to the Chairman of the Tulsa Board of Edu
cation 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 in
formed about "subversive radicals." For a reasonable price and

NAZI AGENTS IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES 129

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 wrhispering, 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.

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 Govern
ment. Allen is still active in a plot to overthrow the Cardenas
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 remem
ber 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

130

UNDERGROUND ARMIES IN AMERICA 131

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 potentiali
ties of natives as spies and saboteurs, the Nazi leaders take ex
traordinary 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 Ger
man-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 letter*
exchanged were signed with the writers' real names and some
with code names. Allen's code name, for instance, is "RosenthaL"

132 SECRET ARMIES

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 com
posed of Urbalejo, chief of the Yaqui nation, Joe Mattus, his trusted lieuten
ant, 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 neces
sary 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^ 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 Na
tionalist 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

UNDERGROUND ARMIES IN AMERICA 133

"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 crooked
ness 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 con
victions.

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; sen
tence 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 i, 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. i, 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 utter
ing fictitious checks. No. 35570.

Oct. 5, 1925: Los Angeles Police Department issued notice
that Allen was wanted for uttering fictitious checks. Bulletin
No. 233.

134 SECRET ARMIES

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 frame
work 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.

UNDERGROUND ARMIES IN AMERICA 1 35

Early in January, Allen received from "Mrs. Fry and C. Chap
man" 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. Fol
lowing 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 Wash
ington, 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 attaches are of the Carol-Tartarescu regime, and they are sailing on
Wednesday, January 26. The new Ambassador will arrive with his staff on

136 SECRET ARMIES

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 Feb
ruary 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-pres
sure 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* 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 Con
gressmen sent them back to work in the Navy Yard after warn
ing 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-

* 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 lik*
Thomas than with a name as potently Irish as Feeney.

137

138 SECRET ARMIES

She CommctweaStb of Amacbntett*

MIDDLESEX ae, AT THB PfiOT M8TWCT COUstiTOF BAftftH* MEDDUBBX
holden at Maiden, in the County of IITMisW. for tfttt

transaction of criminal 1.n«ina«. OB tha fourth

day of t»braary iatheywr^ofc

one thousand nine hundred and MM*? thirty-tin

ird Francis Sullii
is bought before said Court, in
OP MASSACHUSETTS, on a complaint, duly made under oath, a true copy of which is
herewith transmitted.

Which complaint is read to the said defendant, and he is

asked by the Court whether he is guilty or not guilty of the offence charged against him

in said complaint, and said defendant pleads and says that he is— not—

and after hearing the witnesses in the case duly sworn, and fnSy hearing
and ufriey ••fcs^lie defence of said defendant, it appears to said Court that said
defendWjs gufltyj the offence aforesaid.

^»*»"*^^ IT IS THEREFORE CONSIDERED AND ORDERED BY THB COURT.
that tht said defendant, for the offence aforesaid.

be committed to the House of Correction, in

accordmss^tarules and regulations thereof, for
-sateys;— monfrs^from said hut mentioned day.
notified by said Court of
right to appeal from said conviction and sentence.

ATraST:-

CUrk.

From which sentence the said defendant appeals to the SUPERIOR COURT, next to be
holden at Cambridge, within and for the County of Middlesex, for the transaction of criminal
business, on the first Monday of March next, and he is ordered

to be-JMM.oa.4iis— — **m teoegaimisai recngmae to the Commonwealth,— in the
sum of Two thousand -JCTftM dollars,— with sufficient

surety,— to prosecute said appeal there as the law directs— «nd stand committed to abode
the sentence of said Court thereon, until he so recognizes.

>1th whlc1- said order the said defendant refu««a to comply and is
coarlttt*.

ATTEST:

A tru* copy, Atfst:

Wilfred B. Tyler. Cl«rk.

Reproduction of a document showing that Edward Francis Sullivan, at one time chief

THE DIES COMMITTEE SUPPRESSES EVIDENCE

139

f- -

I »

I I

§ 1

07 MASSACHtJSBfrS

Middlesex, e»,

Superior Court

In Teotlaony that the. foregoing la a tru* topy of Copy of
Judgment, I hereunto set my hand and
affix the seal of said Superior Court,
this nineteenth day of August. A.D. 199ft

^

Clerlr.

imvestigator for the Dies Committee, was convicted of larceny and sentenced to prison.

140 SECRET ARMIES

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 communi
cation with Germany, it might be well to review a meeting which
the Congressional Committee's investigator addressed in the
Nazi stronghold in Yorkville.

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 audi
ence 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

THE DIES COMMITTEE SUPPRESSES EVIDENCE 141

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
2$, 19$&- They were:

Walter Dieckhoff, Badge No. 38117, living at 2654 E. igth
Street, Sheepshead Bay.

Hugo Woulters, Badge No. 38166, living at 221 East i6th
Street, Brooklyn.

Alfred Boldt, Badge No. 38069, living at 64-29 yoth 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 after
noon. 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 sub
poenaed. 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 twd
trunks. Nordenholz, a German-American naturalized citizen
for many years, is highly respected by the people in his neigh
borhood. 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;

142 SECRET ARMIES

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 (Jo 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 citizen
ship 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, ex
changed military secrets. Shortly before the agreement was made,
Dieckhoff suddenly went to work for the Staten Island Ship
building Co., Staten Island, which was building four United
States destroyers, numbers 364, 365, 384 and 385. He worked on

THE DIES COMMITTEE SUPPRESSES EVIDENCE 143

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."

144 SECRET ARMIES

"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.

THE DIES COMMITTEE SUPPRESSES EVIDENCE 145

"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, natur
ally."

"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 sub
poenaed 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 Sep
tember 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.

146 SECRET ARMIES

"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 occasion
ally 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.

THE DIES COMMITTEE SUPPRESSES EVIDENCE 147

Like Dieckhoff and Boldt, Harry Woulters, alias Hugo Woul-
ters, 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 blue
prints 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?"

148 SECRET ARMIES

"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 con
fidential 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 mid
night 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."

THE DIES COMMITTEE SUPPRESSES EVIDENCE 149

"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 Com
mittee, 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 wor£
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 proce
dure 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 fur
das Deutschtum im Ausland with headquarters in Berlin, letters

150 SECRET ARMIES

from the foreign division headquarters in Stuttgart, and from
Orgell to Gissibl.

Gissibl was in constant touch with Nazi propaganda head
quarters 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* anc* 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.* 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
primersf 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.

* Nazi propaganda center for foreign countries with headquarters in
Germany.

•j-The notorious Nazi Primer teaching children songs of hate against Jews
and Catholics.

THE DIES COMMITTEE SUPPRESSES EVIDENCE 151

Five days earlier Orgell had written to Gissibl: "You may
perhaps remember that I am in charge of the work for the
Volkbund fur das Deutschtum im Ausland\ for the U.S.A."

Great Kills, 'S.X./HY 24.10:37

Harm P«tor Gissibl
3855/57 North ?/e stern A»».
CMxago, 111*

Lleber Herr

Sie verden tich vielleieht erianern, dasa ioh
file VDfc ( Volktbund fuer das Deutsehtua I* Ausland, Berlin)
Arbeiten fuer USA erledige.

Unsere Buecherstelle in Berlin aoechtejrmn gerne

tyaide Ave. Chicago vun Buacher
satlon "(?) ^ebeten* Kennen Bie ihn 4
leitet er f

Deutachen OPUS

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 Moller, 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

$ People's Bund for Germans Living Abroad.

152 SECRET ARMIES

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.

THE DIES COMMITTEE SUPPRESSES EVIDENCE 153

^^

«Vf l. .Jarttot**,*. 18* *»^ 1938

H.rro

Peter Gtsslbl
AKerlka-Dautscbar
H. Wester a

C b i'c a « o , III.

uisiir*'

Lleber Peter 1

Von Deinem Awtstrlger, <!eo Kanareden Uglier, erblelt leb uc»,*r
«ec 15. Februar eln Schrelben. 2r tellta air u.a. ait, daaa
clo Austausoh voa Jugendlichen fur dieses Jabr nloht aebr ID
Trage kommt. Icb bedauera das aebr. Ich b&tta as la Inter essa
unserer gemelnsamen Bestrebungen sebr gerna geoahen, weoa wlr
beralts' ID die>ed Jahra, gerada auob aua luraa Kreiaa, Jogeadllobt
hler gehebt -batten. Vlelleloht lasat .sicb alt Delner Uoter- '
atutzung dieaa HOfflUhkait doch noob sobaffen. Dla Zeit, die
noch zur VarfUgung etcht, 1st allerdinga aabr Imapp be
•ParUber bio Ich air durchaus im klarao.

Zeb warda Dir demoacbst wiadar auafUhrliober aebreibeo. IB dar
Zwlceheozalt kanns Du air Yielleleht oahera Aogaben Uber die
Entwicklung Delner Sobula wahrand dar letztan Woobeo Ubarmitteliii
tint trfUllung Delner bareobttgtao WUnaoha baba ich erneut aufa
warncta befurwortat* Hoffentlieb lasst sleh aucb sehr bald da*
Zrgebnl* *rzi*lan um das wlr 69n*U0oa bestrebt olnd.

Herzllche OrUss* TOR Bauo sa Haua

io «v»uer Xaaaradtebaft

Another letter connecting Gissibl with a German propaganda agency. This
letter, translated in the text, was hardly noticed by the Dies Committee.

154 SECRET ARMIES

bo* ®ettttmtt hn

9m*. feprttMMfe « X Qtrfto TO 8Z. ffirlffir. 22;

«fcf«9rf*«: Vel/Gr. 3V3**» <Sttnn <3SJ 30, b«t 20. Mai 1938

«H.rt<l«.eu$«T.0tT. »

0n.tif 39I$5

Earrn

Peter Cl«»lbl

3855 North Western Art.

CM c ago p 111.
U.S.A.

Lieber Komerad GlsslblT

Wlr schrleben Ihnen g«steni, dasa die 3*000 S&ngerfeatplejkettea

Uber Orgell an -Si« -geleltet vUrden. Aua verachledenen GrUndeB

ia"ben wlr die PlaJcetten Jetzt In zehn Zlnzelpakete vertcilt,

ron denen je zwel anfolgende *nschriften gingen:

Prledrlch Schlena, Karl Koeller, Karl Kraenzle, Orgell und zwcl aa

Sle.

Bltte informleren Sle Ihre Hitarbelter entsprechend und tracea

Sle Sorge, dass die etwalgen Zollspesen rerauslagt werden. .Dlese

wollen Sle sich spater von Herrn Orgell zurxlckvergtiten lassen.

Is war dies der elnfachste und elnzlgste Weg, auf dem die Plakettte

Tersandt werden konnten, ua rechtzeltlg drxlben elnzutreffen.

Hit volkedutsche«

X.A. Vennekohl

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.

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 Cen
tral 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

155

156 SECRET ARMIES

heavily armed men— all this before France awoke to the treason
within her own borders.

The strategy pursued by the Fifth Column in different coun
tries 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, con
tinued 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 head
quarters 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 Com
munism," is really a military alliance now generally recog-

CONCLUSION 157

nized. 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 pres
sure 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, neithei 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 im
portant part in fascist military strategy. Consequently, we find
intensive efforts by the axis, and especially Germany, to over
throw the Cardenas 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.

158 SECRET ARMIES

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 ma
chines, 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 Govern
ment is supplying them with propaganda. In Panama the situa
tion 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

CONCLUSION

159

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 coun
tries of the Western World. The German-American Bund func
tions "to promote better relations between the United States
and Germany," but the efforts consist of persistent anti-Ameri
can 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 coun
tries 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 broad
casts 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 news
papers 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 Gov
ernment 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

160

SECRET ARMIES

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 per
nicious 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 elect retyped, and
1he printing and binding done in union shops affili
ated 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.