The midland journal., 1915-12-03
CAPTAIN BOY-ED
ACCUSED IN COURT
kttorney Wood Says He Has Rid.
den Roughshod OverU. S.LaWs.
s75o,ooo FROM GERMANY
Prosecution Refuses TO Accept Con-
cession, Preferring To Prove
Charges BY Testimony--Intent To
Defraud Government Denied.

f
New York.-In the alleged con-
spiracy of several Hamburg-American
Steamship Line officials to deceive and
defraud the United States by sending
neutral relief ships with coal and other
supplies to German men-of-war in the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at the be-
ginning of the European war Captain
K. Boyd, German naval attache,
with headquarters at the German EN-
bassy in Washington, played q leading
role, according to witnesses who testi-
fed in the Federal court here.
One OF these witnesses swore that
Captain Boyd personally directed the
expenditure Of approximately $75O,OOO
which, unsolicited and unexpected,
had been deposited to the witnesses
credit in New York banking house
early in September, 1914. OF this
money, the witness testified, $350,O00
was telegraphed to the Neveda Nation
al Bank at San Francisco in one lump
sum, $4,000 was paid in several
amounts to the North German Lloyd
Steamship Line here, about $4,000 to
the Hamburg-American Line here and
by cable money order in Hamburg and
some of the remainder was still on
hand. All of these disbursements, this
witness asserted, were made by order
by Captain Boy-Ed.
German Importer Chief Witness.
This witness, Gustave B. Kulen-
kampff, German importer and ex-
porter, with offices here, and others
testified in the trial of Dr. Karl Buenz,
Adolph Hackmeister, George Koetter
and Joseph Poeppinghausen, all off,
cials of the Hamburg rg-American Line,
who are charged with conspiracy in
having directed the loading and dis
patching of 16 vessels to the relief of
half dozen or more German warships
isolated from supplies in the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans.
The testimony, which virtually
opened the Governments case, follow
ed a short address to the jury by
Roger B. Wood, Assistant United
States District Attorney, in which Mr.
Wood said that the Government would
show that "the defendants rode rough
shod over the laws and treaties of the
United States as contemptuously as if
those laws and treaties had been mere
scraps of paper"
Prosecution Rejects Concessions.
William Rand, counsel for the de-
PENDANTS, offered to concede certain
charges of the Government, involving
IL steamers, and in his concession ad-
mitted that DR.. Buenz and his asso-
ciates had sent out the vessels as
charged to meet German warships in
the Atlantic and deliver their supplies.
Mr. Rand said that in sending these
vessels his clients were acting on
legitimate orders which came to them
by cable from the home office of the
company in Hamburg. But the Gov
ernment lawyers rejected the conces-
sion and sought to prove their case
out of the mouths of witnesses.
"The defense is not willing to admit
the facts; 1t is trying to smother
them" was Mr.. Woods retort to Mr.. 4
Rand's offer.
Quite the contrary" replied Mr..
Rand smilingly. I'VE are willing to
admit that $75O.OOO has been spent as
the Government is trying so hard to
prove. Why. we are willing to go
much further than that-we will ad-
NIT that S2,OOO,OOO of German money
was spent in chartering and supplying
vessels for relief of German warships."
And how much more?" asked Mr..
Wood.
"That is all know Of" was the re-
ply; "but. admitting the facts, we do
not admit the intent to deceive or de-
fraud. as charged in the indictment"