New-York tribune., 1918-01-29
Spy Theft Story
Pure "'Fake," Say
Censorship Heads
No Documents Stolen Here,
Declare Army and Navy
Officers

United States army and navy cen
sorship officials stationed in New York
were SO indignant at VIVA, they
termed the utterly false statements
regarding an alleged Wholesale rob
berry Of the censorship's files re-
latlng to the Intelligence distri
button system Of the German spy and
propaganda work in the United States
appearing in Hearst's "New York
American" Sunday morning that for
once they forgot red tape restrictions
regarding talking for publication. They
talked emphatically and adorned their
remarks with some carefully selected
eXpletivcs.
BY way Of explanation it should be
noted that there are two censorship
services, viz, one Of the mails and one
of the cables. The army intelligence
service has charge of the former. and
the latter is in the Navy Department.
he New York office of the mails CEN
sorship Is in charge of Major Nicholas
Blddle. The army is represented on
the committee of five that has charge
OF the cable censorship under the ma
val intelligence service by Captain b.
NJ. Day. Captain Days predecessor for
a brief period was Captain Robert Goe-
let Captain Ogden l.. Mills held the
office for {. short time before Captain
Goelet, merely as stopgap while
waiting for orders to proceed to
France, where he now is.
The foregoing explanation seems to
be necessary because the Hearst story.
which appeared under a Washington
cate line, seems to have confused the
two censorship Offices, and because il
stated that Captain Mills had been re
moved from his place on the local cable
censorship committee because of the
theft of the documents that revealed
all the workings Of German espionage
IN Ame and thus armed the Ameri-
can intelligence service to watch it
through cables and mails and track it
down throughout the world.
MAYOR Nicholas Biddle said that he
had read the article in "The Sunday
American" and also the one in "The
New York Sun" of Monday, and that
after consultation with the mails CEN
sorship over the telephone he was in a
position to state positively that there
was not word Of truth in the whole
story. His denial of it NAV be placed
In categorical form thus:
flrst-No documents of any kind. i'm
portant or unimportant, have been
stolen from either censorship-mails
or cables
Second-Lieutenan Arthur Brigham.
/ Of the Naval Intelligence Service. did
not testify before the House Naval AZ
falrs Committee that important docu-
ments had been stolen.
1hlrd-Captain Mills was not re-
moved because some documents were
stolen. because. in the first place. no
documents were stolen, and, in the sec
ono place, he had not been removed"
or any cause, but had merely filed 4
temporary place and then gone on pre-
arranged duty abroad.
Captain B. NJ. Day. who now fills .hs
place that Captain Mills had for short
time on the executive committee that
mas charge OF the censorship of cables
IN New Y ork City, was just as emphatic
as Major Blddle. The captain declared
man spies and that nothing had hap
pened IN the way OF loss OF documents
OF any kind that would establish a bass
that would account for the story. He
regarded it as q wild fake from start
to finish, and said that the committees
was endeavorlng to run the warn down
to Its origin. He intimated-or, rather.
one OF his associates did-that the COM
mittee had a rather definite idea as 70
the origin and animus of the fake.
Inc suggestion was made in one
quarter that the story is only another
torn OF German propaganda, the pur-
pose OF 1T being to impress the AMER
can people with the dread omnipotence
OF the German espionage system, which,
according to the story, is able to- ontw:t
the American Intelligence Service and
censorship and render it helpless BIZ