New-York tribune., 1918-06-08
u. S. Menaced With Re.
prisals in Effort to Lib
crate Plotter
Germany Warned
To Think Twice
Lansing Says Harming Pris-
oners Would Invite Retail
iation ON Germans Here
Especial Dispatch to Tho Tribune

Especial Dispatch to The Tribune)
WASHINGTON, June IA demand
by the German government for the re-
lease of Captain Franz Rintelen, Ger
man plotter, now in prison in this coun-
try, coupled with threat Of reprisals
against American prisoners in Germany
1t the demand is refused, brought de-
fiant reply from the United States gov
ernment In diplomatic notes given out
by the State Department to-day.
Germany proposed the exchange of
Siegfried Paul London, an alleged
American, under sentence in Germany
as spy, for Rintelen, accompanying
its request with the threat that "per-
sons," presumably American prisoners,
would be "made to suffer" by "some
appropriate measures of reprisal" if
Rintelen did not receive his liberty.
In a note that bristles with defiance
Secretary Of State Lansing refused the
demand for the release Of Rintelen, de-
nounced the principle set forth in the
German note that "reprisals OCCASION
ing physical suffering are Legitimate" !"
and gave this added warning TO Ger
many: ~
cit would be wise for the German
government to consider that if it acts
upon that principle it will inevitably
be understood to invite similar re-
ciprocal action on the part of the
United States with respect to the
great number Of German subjects in
this country"
Many Hostages Here
AS an evidence that the United
States is in position to make any
counter reprisals effective, figures were
given out showing that there are far
more German prisoners and interned
Germans held in prison and detention
camps here than there are American
prisoners in Germany. The plain
threat of the United States is that
these prisoners, many of them officers
and powerful German civilians, will be
held as hostages to guarantee the fair
treatment Of American prisoners in
Germany.
Captain Franz Rintelen, paymaster of
the German plotters in the United
States, was arrested before the United
States entered the war and convicted
on three indictments. He was SEN
fenced to serve term of four and a
half years at the Atlanta Federal
prison,
Rintelen was convicted of being the
paymaster for the propaganda con-
| Quoted by the Labor National Peace
Council, convicted of part in the fire.
sells with bombs placed in their holds
in American ports and was convicted
on third indictment for perjury in
obtaining a fraudulent passport. He
was also mixed up in the Welland
Canal plots.
Siegfried Paul London, who was
offered in exchange for Rintelen, is not
recognized as bona fide American
citizen by the State Department. The
records show he was born in Leipsic,
Germany, in 1862, came to the United
States in 1882 and was naturalized in
|
York until 1900.
Lived for Years in Warsaw
From 1903 until his arrest in War
saw in 1915 as a Russian spy he had
been a resident of Warsaw. On the
theory that naturalized citizen must
take some steps to keep his citizenship
alive, the State Department refuses to
| interfere in LOndOn's case
The demand of the German govern
made in verbal note presented to the
State Department April 20, 1918. by
the Swiss Minister.
The German note is as follows:
On December 20. 1917, the mer-
chant and interpreter, Siegfried Paul
London, citizen of the United
States, was condemned to death by
court martial at Warsaw for treason
as a spy. The Governor General of
Warsaw exercising judicial clemency
on January 9, 1918, commuted this
sentence to ten years penal servi-
tude. According to facts estab-
lished at the court martial, London
obtained citizenship in the year 1887.
l He is married to an American citi-
zen, Mary Leonhard.
London was found guilty because,
for the period from the beginning
i of the war until about May, 1915,
he served the enemy as q spy. He
early as August 81, 1915. He sue
ceeded, however. in escaping. but
! was recaptured on September "a,
1917. For this reason the chief pro-
Il Ho.,tsnnad ~, Pane & CoIu,n,t q