Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-14
CLUES OBTAINED
|NNAW MYSTERY
Publicity Given Theft OF Plans
flinders. Detectives.
They Say.
FOREIGN NATION NOT YET
CONNECTED WITH CASE
None of Stolen Papers Contained
Valuable Secrets. Officials
Declare.

Following an announcement made Las
night that Mans Tor the electrical wir
ing of the proposed dreadnought Penn
sylyania haze disappeared from the
Navy Department, detectives inrestigat-
ing the theft declared today that pub
LEGATION Of the leak probably Vii.
hamper their work. and may proven
solution Of the problem.
The Department o. .-~.ice is said -
have several likely clues. w. --ar
lead I" arrests. Nothing 50 far has
developed il is stated. - directly CON
meet any foreign nation with the sus-
poets.
The first set of plans missing disap-
peared on the night of Laroh Z.
Further investigation at the Navy De.
partment today reveals that a secon
set OF plans which are missing from
the bureau Of steam engineering wers
taken between the evening Of Satuf-
day. March -. and the following Mon :
day The plans We're duplicates oc
those stolen March 1.
Greater Future Safeguards.
The fact that the ordnance and steam
engineering bureaus Of the Navy De-
partment have missed documents and
their ornaments has created alarm
| among officials and will undoubtedly
| cause the officials to surround the war
secrets OF the United states with
greater safeguards in future.
IL is stated at the Navy Department
that none of the missing papers CON
tanned secrets of advantage to foreign
| nations. Some officials were inclined
today to believe that the losses pos
| sibly Were the result OF carelessness
| OF clerks, but the investigating forces
OF the government are continuing to
endeavor to unravel the mystery
The Navy Department late yesterday
afternoon issued this statement:
Navy Department Statement
ION the night Of March dnaugura-
| ton day. when there were a large num-
Der Of people In the Stat. War and Navy
building. assembled to witness the inau-
| gural fireworks. there Were tak,n, hy
persons as Yet unknown. from the
4 draughting room of the bureau OF steam
engineering. uncompleted plans Of the
| electric wiring of the new battleshsp
Pennsylvania. These plans showed the
| general arrangement of the decks and
/, matches. but would be OF no particula r
| value to any one wishing to obtain naval
information not generally made public.
| A short time after similar plans wer.
| missed from the same draughtng room.
| The matter is still under investigation.
| The rooms of the steam engineering b.
| reau commanded a fine view of the fire.
| works. and a number OF visitors We're a
| there on the night OF March I. For tie
4 most part these We're members 81 tie
| families of officials and clerks. and no ons
was admitted without a pass. The plans
| We're ordinary blue prints. lying on this
draughting table. but were large enoug u
| to make quite a conspicuous role.
The fact that other plans for electrical
wiring We're missed after March tendesl
| to relieve the visitors from suspicion, an
| as this was the last occasion Upon Whfctl
the rooms were open to other than en-
ployes the investigation turned in their
direction.
The plans We're very simple and such 9
| could be prepared TO order by any COM
petent electrician They did not relate TO
the fire control or turret mechanism, ami
therefore had no particular naval value.
l The officials, however, Were alarmed at
| the occurrence. because il disclosed tho
possibility of the theft of really impor-
| tant secret plans. Consequently extra pre-
cautions have been taken TO guard
! against the entry into the draughtng
| rooms of any one who does not belong
| there and a system of checking and ac-
counting will be rigidly enforced.