The German Spy in America / The Secret Plotting of German Spies in the United States and the Inside Story of the Sinking of the Lusitania

by John Price Jones

Accordingly, when von Papen’s plan for espionage was perfected, he had not only a staff of experts at his elbow, but thousands of reservists and the help of German and Austro-Hungarian consuls and channels of information. He had men at his disposal for dangerous and delicate missions to other countries. The ramifications of the system, the collecting agency and activities which he supervised for the good of the Fatherland were so finely organized and so comprehensive that von Papen in reality was the head of the military division of the German spy system of the entire world, outside of the countries belted by the Allies with a ring of steel.

Facts to prove the details of von Papen’s organization and deeds were obtained from the von Igel papers, from the letters and secret documents taken from Captain Archibald; from documents and check stubs found in von Papen’s possession when searched at Falmouth, England; from von der Goltz’s confession; from scores of witnesses and from facts dug up by the Secret Service and the Department of Justice. The trials of various offenders against neutrality laws have given the public more evidence. United States District-Attorney H. Snowden Marshall, in New York, his assistants, Roger B. Wood, in charge of the criminal division; Raymond H. Sarfaty, John C. Knox, and Harold A. Content, all set forth before the public many phases of the ingenious underground methods of spying and violating the law. Upon the evidence found by those officials and by United States District-Attorney Preston, of San Francisco, the following facts are presented:

Once the spies were selected and assigned to their duties, von Papen sought first, to glean information bearing on the great war. He was interested, naturally, in the amount of shrapnel shells and high explosives which the Allies were purchasing. He was eager to ascertain what American Army officers were learning about the military operations on the Continent and what the American Government was doing to develop its army to cope with the new problems arising from the war. He was watching the officers of the Allies in this country. He was seeking lines of communication with the racial elements in America that were allied with the insurrection forces in the colonies of the Entente Powers. The varied results of his investigations are shown by extracts from reports which he sent to Berlin by Captain Archibald. One letter told, for instance, that the Norwegian and Dutch governments were in the market for war materials. Von Papen asked if there were any objection by Germany to the sale to those governments of war products purchased by him in America, adding:

“I could probably dump on the Norwegian Government a great part of the Lehigh Coke Company’s toluol which is lying around useless.”

In a cipher despatch to the chief of the General Staff in Berlin, he noted a conversation overheard in Philadelphia between two Englishmen. One British army officer, he said, was explaining a method for conveying military information by photographs. Likewise he gathered news of the Spanish Government seeking supplies, and sifted the facts assembled from factories, banking houses, diplomatic sources and transportation offices about the Allied war orders.

SECRET AGENTS BLOCK OUT AMERICA

Captain von Papen’s cheque counterfoils are a veritable diary of some of his criminal—or if you please, military—activities in America. They give the names and the aliases of his secret agents; and day after day are recorded therein the payments made by von Papen to the persons working for or with him. The counterfoils tell the story of the purpose of the payment and by means of the endorsements on the cheques one can gather in skeleton form the story of a part—but not all—of the propaganda which the military attaché supervised. The stubs show the receipt of money, almost immediately after the beginning of the war marked for “War Intelligence Office.” The interesting thing is that money for war intelligence work came from von Bernstorff and that funds for salary and expenses came from Dr. Fr. Adler, the Ambassador’s secretary. To the fact that Captain von Papen kept such an accurate diary—an instance of German efficiency—is due in part the exposure of his varied activities in this country.

To Anton Kuepferle, another German spy captured in England and suspected after a confession to have shot himself, he gave $100. To Wachendorf he gave funds that the latter might go both to Berlin and England in the service of the Kaiser. To Paul Koenig, he handed many accounts for secret service work, paying also the expenses of Koenig’s agents on trips to Montreal and Quebec in hunting information about enlistments of soldiers in Canada and the shipments of supplies from Canadian ports. The stub book also shows that he sent agents to investigate ammunition factories in different parts of the country, and that he paid the expenses of von Skal in getting “photographs for the War Intelligence Office.” He constantly was sending cheques to consuls in various parts of the country to pay the expenses of reservists and agents.

TO INVADE CANADA

The diary, too, tells us of Captain von Papen’s plan to invade Canada. Scarcely had he arrived in this country from Mexico, a few days after the Germans had invaded Belgium, than, as general-in-chief of the German reservists, he began to mobilize his forces for a military enterprise in Canada. If you look at the Captain’s diary you see these entries: “September 1, 1914, Mr. Bridgeman Taylor, $200;” “September 16, for Buffalo, Taylor, Ryan, $200;” “September 22, for Ryan, Buffalo, $200;” “October 14, for Fritzen and Busse, Buffalo, $40,00.”