The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-07
REAFFIRMS HIS STORY.
Bentheim Declares That He Can
Prove All His Statements.

| Atlanta, Ca, Sept. 6.-Charles f
Bentheim today reiterated TO repre-
sentative of the Associated Press the
absolute truth of his statement involv-
ing Vice Consul F'lorschuetz in the Ger
man secret service work between Berlin
and Paris.
"Of course, Florschuetz will deny
! this" said Bentheim. but it can be
easily fastened upon him. The point in
the investigation really is this: Tc IL
quire into the right direction. There
/ is no use going to Florschuetz about
| this thing. He will naturally deny it,
and the rage of the Germans will turn
on u.s. If Florschuetz denies his con-
nection with this matter, let this ques-
ton be put TO him:
For what purpose cid Flors3huetz
hand over to me (BentheiT) money
order calling for 1,50O marks, signed by
the emperor?
What the honorable secretary of
state, Mr.. Hay, says about the vice con-
sui beginning in 1888, is correct. The
German government wanted him made
consul, but this position he was not al
lowed to fill because he wis German.
do not know positively that he was
cashier of tile bank a. Sonneberg. He
was director; Franz was d director,
and his bank often figured in the hand
ling of secret service funds, as 1 have
told you. I will be Ullliu:: ID respectful
ly submit TO the honorable secretary Of
state the erection n which tc LOOK for
convincing evidence Of all that l charge.
say again:
"Florschuetz was using his official po-
stion as vice AMI deputy consul ID aid
the ,Gern,ll sa;.et 81: zee in LJtainli q
lnformcti,n '-e1: France It. placed
his services at the disposal of ne Ger
man ,ecrau service and between he
years 1890 and 1894 he was actively en-
gagged as conf l. l:ial aIar the Sc
cret serv.ee. Ter Iba secretary Of sta e
request the American ambassador in
London to get permission from the COM
missioner of postoffices in London and
go to the village of Holm
roe and examine the postoffice records
there which are not destroyed. Ev;-
dence there in black and white will
show the truth of every assertion have
made
what course do you suggest for the
securing of information regarding the
German branch of this service?"
1T would be manifestly impolitic to
make that public. AS / say, l am will
ing to respectfully submit any sugges-
ton to an accredited representative of
the United States government regard
ing a way in which this matter may be
ferreted out. Once our hand is shown,
the German government will effectual-
ly destroy every bit of evidence which
will yet confirm what I say.
while it will be difficult to prove
from physical evidence furnished by
the papers themselves that the letter
heads and envelopes were used by
Fiefschuetz, because the papers are in
the secret archives in the war office in
Berlin, considerable evidence can be
secured. If it can be proved that be-
tween 1890 and 1894, 'Florschuetz was
engaged in the purchase of French war
office merchandise. the presumption
that he prostituted his office will be
strong.
"Florschuetz handled the German Sc
cret service money in this matter. /
can give dates and details regarding
the handling of the money"
Bentheim was pressed further for his
recollection of the appearance of the
documents from the French war office
as they reached him.
II can recall many of them, he
said, land / think if were to put my
self to it, I could write you a descrip-
ton of the war vessel as handled by
me. You know at the top of the sheet
describing certain boat would be the
word rapport This would be under
scored and on a line by itself under
this was generally written:
Upon the experiments made with the
Goubel submarine boat
Here would follow the mode of con-
strnction and method of maneuvering
the boat. Over at the left hand side of
the paper con the border say two
Inches, was clear. This was used for
comments on the matter in the report.