Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-12-03


cndorser of your lies
Come back with this message. 70 the
people of the United States: The laws
passed by Congress must be obeyec and
must be respected Come back with this
message to your waiting fellow citizens
That we y men chosen from among you
are big enough and brave enough and
honest enough to bring in verdict of
guilty when the evidence justifies the
verdict
Points to PRESIDENTS
Counsel for the indicted officials
went back, in his summing up today,
to the days of Dewey at Manila, for
what he termed a parallel and vim
dication of the acts OF his clients in
sending coal and supplies from Ameri-
can ports to the German fleet in the
south Atlantic in the early days of the
European war.
"Deweys ships" said Mr.. Rand, the
defendants counsel. needed coal and
supplies during that blockade. How did
they get them Why, it is not secret.
An American firm at the British port
of Hong kong-Jackson G. Evans,
plies and provisions on British steam
ers and cleared these steamers for the
Chinese port of Macao. And for Ma
Gao these ships sailed ont of Hong
Kong Their manifests made no men
ton of supplies. The manifests said
these steamers were loaded with scrap
iron.
What happened? This so-called
scrap iron-these supplies of food and
coal-were transferred to Dewey,s
ships at sea- The carrier vessels then
scrap iron, but it was scrap iron load
ed from the ruins of Cavite, battered
down by Deweys guns.
Had anybody ever been sent to
jail for this? The first man has vet
to say that in sailing out of Hong
Kong with supplies for American war
ships these steamers, their owners,
agents or shippers. committed an Of
fensive against Her Majesty, the
Queen of England.
What is the difference between that
and this? What was a crime in Au-
gust, 1914, must have been a crime in
August. 1898. The laws have not
changed. Mott was not crime then,
it is not a crime now; it Is simply
question of whose OK Is gored.'
Roger B. Wood, conducting the
prosecution, objected to this argument.
but il was overruled by Judge Howe.
Defends X. Boyd
Reviewing alleged participation of
Captain X. Boy-Ed, the German naval
attache, Mr. Rand said:
1T is only fair to him to say that
he has done nothing whatever that is
not sanctioned by the laws Of nations
and by the laws of the United States"
Mr.. Wood reviewed in detail the evil
dence in the case. especially the as
sertions on the witness stand of DIR.
Karl Buenz, Adolph Hachmeister and
George hotter, three of the defend
ants, with many years service in the
Hamburg-American Line. that they did
not even know what a clearance pa
per or a manifest was.
Does anyone believe that" he ask
ed. Il have been challenged to saw
what I think of DR. Buenz and am
Hcic ~ SOY tHlIh ne tleQ.
They know, all three of them, that
ships needed clean papers. They knew
that American clearances were pass
ports unchailenged then on the seas
and they sought by foul and dishonest
means to obtain those papers that
would have been withheld had the true
destination of the supplies aboard been
declared.
They have told of an agreement with
the German government made in the
fall of 1913. whereby these defendants
were to send out supply ships to the
German fleet. We called in vain on
them to produce this agreement. Why
didn't they? Where is it? They took
it. these defendants. to the German
embassy at Washington. where the
United States government cannot get
it. Why? l am here to say that in
that document are the details of the
whole scheme; that the plans are laid
for obtaining these false clearances.
that the contents of that document
would incriminate the defendants"
Mr.. Wood closed his address shortly
before o'clock. Judge Howe declared
a short recess. after which he began
his charge to the jury.
Judges Charge
In his charge to the jury, Judge
Howe said:
You will consider that it was law
full for the defendants to carry coal
and other articles to the German war
ships, although the coal and other ar
ticles were liable to capture and con-
fscation. That. however, does not con-
Germ us except as it may or may not
bear upon the motive of the defend
ants in what they did or admitted to
do in making out their manifests
You should dismiss from your minds
all questions of neutrality or interna-
tional law. as those questions will not
concern us any more so far as this
trial is concerned. The government of
the United States has said to the world:
Your vessels may come and 60 and use
our ports; but when you go you must
have a clearance, and to get your clear
ance YOU must tell US the truth in a
manifest as to where you intend to go
and what you have on board. You
must not Intentionally deceive us as
to what you have on board or where
you are going"