Using the name of Fred Hansen, he received persons in that office. There he summoned to his help a part of the German espionage system. He did not hesitate to call upon any German for assistance, and thousands of willing workers were at his disposal. If he wished a naval reservist, he knew where to get him; if a member of the landsturm was needed for any detail, he was called. From Boy-Ed, he received data about the sailings of ships; from von Papen, facts about munition factories. He met Koenig and assigned numerous tasks to him, particularly the location of munition factories, their products and exports.
His first task, merely incidental in importance compared with his other aim, was the succouring of the Fatherland and the blocking of the Allies through purchases. He participated with influential Germans in the scheme of buying the leading munition factories. He attempted the running of the British blockade. Dr. Albert also was buying goods, but von Rintelen, working on a much larger scale, commensurate with his fertile imagination, and employing a staff of agents, took charge of the shipments of raw products and food. Carrying on these purchases through E. V. Gibbon Company, using the name of Gibbon and Hansen, he had as aid Captain Steinberg, a German naval officer. Through him, von Rintelen chartered ships, purchased materials, caused false manifests to be made for the cargoes, and arranged for shipment to Italy and the Scandinavian countries, whence they were trans-shipped.
IN THE MAZE
This officer, it is charged, had dealings with Dr. Walter T. Scheele, the alleged manufacturer of fire bombs, and arranged with him to mix lubricating oil, so urgently needed in Germany, with fertilizer, and ship the oil as “commercial fertilizer.” The oil was to be extracted by a chemical process in Germany. Von Rintelen, through Steinberg, importuned Dr. Scheele to ship munitions as farming implements, giving him $20,000 for that purpose. Dr. Scheele did bill the shipment as requested, but he did not lie because he shipped farming machinery, taking a fat commission. Again von Rintelen was hoodwinked. The officer, von Igel and Dr. Scheele have been indicted on a charge of conspiring to defraud the United States by false manifests.
“The British blockade,” von Rintelen used to boast with purring pride, “is a myth. I can send to Germany all the goods that I wish.”
So skilfully did he plan—he was a master of detail and a consummate artist in concealing his movements—and so many different aliases did he employ, that at first he attracted no attention, and after a time his doings were credited to a German Red Cross lecturer. Because of the German method of switching agents to cause confusion to the enemy’s spies, it is probable that some Red Cross agents did figure in the purchases. The investigations of the Federal authorities, however, have laid to von Rintelen the schemes carried on from April to June, 1915.
Von Rintelen boasted that he bought provisions, amounting to $2,000,000 a week, for shipment to Germany through Denmark. More than $25,000,000 was consumed by von Rintelen in his blockade-running, many of the boats being seized by British warships.
Von Rintelen also took a flier at the most elusive and puzzling diversions of war-brokers, namely the purchase of the 350,000 Krag-Jorgensen rifles which the United States Government had condemned just prior to the outbreak of the war. Around those rifles was centred more intrigue and deceitful scheming than was incited by almost any other single article connected with the war. Even after the Government had announced emphatically that they were not for sale, and President Wilson had told one banker: “You will get those rifles only over my dead body,” every belligerent tried to get them.
Von Rintelen heard that by bribing Government officials he could obtain the guns. He was stirred; for if an official would accept money for one thing, he could be influenced to do other things to help Germany. Sending out agents, he offered to purchase the rifles. He encountered a man who put a price of $17,826,000 on them, part of the amount being intended, von Rintelen was told, as bribes of several millions of dollars for Government officials.
Things looked bright to von Rintelen. “So close am I to the President,” said the agent who promised to deliver them, “that two days after you deposit the money in the bank you can dangle his grandchild on your knee.” But von Rintelen apparently came to realize that he was dealing with the secret agent of another government, who was laying a trap for him, and he quickly withdrew.