The sun., 1918-07-23
WOMAN GAVE CLEW
IN INVASION PLOTS
Corresponded With Strensch
Over idea to Lead German
Rcscrvists to Canada.
NEW ARRESTS EXPECTED
Gun Plan Smuggling, Mexico
Drive, Attempt to Steal u s.
Secrets Charged.

a pretty and fashionably dressed
woman OF American birth, who is said
to have been In correspondence with DR..
Frederick August Richard Won Strensch
when he IL alleged to have been trying
to form an army OF 10000 German re-
servists for an invasion OF Canada. was
examined by Charles DE Woody at the
New York Bureau OF Investigation OF
the Department Of Justice yesterday.
After talking to the woman Chief De
Woody, while withholding her name. ad-
mitted that she had added information
of value to the Governments case
against DR.. Won Strensch. who was ar
rested June 10 when dining in Column
bus Circle restaurant.
!. Smuggling Gun Plans.
Among the charges against Won
Strensch is that OF completely in a con-
splracy during the last few weeks to
smuggle the plans for new American
gun OF exceptional destructiveness to
Germany by way of Holland.
Following the arrest OF Won Strensch,
Countess Alexandra Won Scheele.
woman in middle age who In her earlier
years was we'll known on the German
stage as Alexandra Viarda, was taken
by agents of the Department Of Justice
In her apartment in Central Park south.
She was i'll and was committed to
Bellevue Hospital. She was a friend or
DR.. Won Strensch.
Other arrests are expected. The cor
respondence seized by the Government
identified a Russian who Is said to have
obtained employment at one OF the Cow
eminent airplane factories presumably
| to act as a spy for Germany. Capt.
b." is referred TO in one OF the letters
Of the American woman TO Won
Strensch. Other references are to a
plan to have German agents obtain en-
ployment in a confidential capacity in
the Government bureaus at Washington.
Plans for Invasion.
Excerpts from the letters written by
J the American woman to Won Strensch
were read to reporters by Chief De
Woody. These excerpts indicate that
the woman wrote from q place in or
near Buffalo. They Also indicate that
the plot involved the mobilization OF
!
which a march was to have been made
across the Grand Trunk Railway bridge
to Bridgeburg In Canada.
| The object of the letters apparently
was to keep DR.. Won Strensch Informed
while he remained In New York OF the
situation at the border. In a letter
| dated October Is. 1916, the woman wrote
as follows The Canadians at Bridge
burg have asked for help. as they are
in fear OF Germans In this vicinity"
In a later letter the following was
written: "One day this week Buffalo
newspap ers told about raid about to
be made in the Quebec district This be-
ing the most important. Do not be made
a prisoner"
References in the letters to the send
ing of an army into Mexico to assist
| whatever faction there that was mos'
friendly to Germany indicate that thai
may have been the original design. One
Of the letters had the following para.
graph: 81 have been thinking over the
situation in New York and WONDERING
why you and your 100000 men do moi
60 into Quebec and prevent Canada from
sending out more men to help the Brit,
!sh."
Friend of Bismarck.
Or. Won Strensch. who Is 80 years old
has been in the United States for twenty
FIVE years. He did not seek naturaliza-
| ton as n citizen. He was a friend OF
Bismarcks later years. and is said &c
have left Germany after he aroused The
anger of the authorities by expressing
! himself against the treatment accorded
| to the Iron Chancellor.
Among the sliced papers OF Dr. vor
Strensch were two photographs, one Of
him in the uniform of an officer of the
Prussian Guard the other OF Frederick
William, father OF the present Kaiser
| The resemblance was so marked that II
supported information given ont by the
Naval Intelligence Bureau that Vor
Strensch is an unrecognized son of Fred