The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1918-07-12
10000 OWNERS
OF HUI N BONDS
ARE AMERICAN
Complete List in Hands of Unit
ed States Secret Serv-
ice Agents
6 ISSUES WERE SOLD HERE
Invalid Unless COuntersigned by
Former Ambassador Won
BernstOrff
6 ISSUES WE'RE SOLD HERE

Washington. July ia fairly com
plete list of the holders of German
government bonds in the United States
is among the assets OF secret service
men fighting German propaganda, II
was said today by officials. discuss
ing the disclosure of the large hold
ings of the Busch family made yes.
terday by Alfred l.. Becker, New York
assistant attorney general.
Names of nearly 10000 individuals
are on the list, which has been built
up during the course of secret inves'
legations made during the last two
years. A wide distribution was Civ
en- to the securities and they were is
sued in denominations of as small as
$4,000.
Approximately six different issues
of the bonds were made in the United
States in order to evade the English
blockade and to- make The bonds
valueless if seized provision was in
corporated on the face of most OF
them that they should be considered
invalid unless countersisrel ~ Count
Won Bernstorff, former ambassador
to the United States
They were underw,i.ten in good
sized blocks by various banking hous-
es and syndicates. the transatlantic
Trust company, officers of whom were
arrested yesterday for internncnt, De'
ing an 3c;ive agent.
Austria Gets Savings.
How the AustrO Hungarian govern
ment got tontrOl OF the savings Of it's
emigrants to"this country through the
Trans Atlantic Trust Co., nov seized
ny the government, was told today by
Francis P. 'Garvan, investigator for
the alien property custodian.
Austro-Hungarian immigrants. up
on their arrival in New York before
the war, he stated, were met at the
piers by an agent of the bank who di.
rected the INTO boarding houses, the
keepers of which were representa-
tives of the Transatlantic institution.
Even the services Of clergymeE
were utilized by the banks officials to
impress Austro-Hungarians with the
importance of placing all their funds
and savings with the esta blishments
whose controlling hand reached over
from Vienna. y,
Millions of dollars worth of Austro-
Hungarian and German war bonds, ad-
vertised by the bank in George Sylves-
ter Viereck,s weekly paper called "The
Fatherland," among other publications
were sold to these immigrants and
even to others who had become Ameri-
can citizens.
On the day it was seized by the fed
eral authorities the bank had $4,000
deposit0rs and $4,000 customers. Its
deposits totalled $7,O0O,O00. Since its
organization and prior to Americas
entry into the war, it had sent to-.
tai Of 1S2,000,000 kronen ($72.S00,0 OO)
to Austria. Hungary
HUNS BOUGHT NEWSPAPER.
New York, July 12-The trail OF
German propaganda financed in Amer
lea by money raised in this country
through the sale Of German war bands
is still one which is long and unex-
plOred by the American Investigators,
it was learned authOritatively here to-
day. Count Won Bernstorff and DR..
eHinrich Albert, who was German
commercial attache in the United
States were given carte blanche by
the German government, according to
evidence declared to have been un>
covered by the New York state attor>
ney generals office. The money
which is alleged to have been used to
control the stock Of the New York
Evening Mail, according to Deputy At
tOrney General Becker's belief, is only
a small portion OF great sums said to
aggregate millions, which German
agents used in this country to influ-
ence public opinion-so it would be
favorable to Germany. The purchase
of control of newspapers is said to be
only one phase Of the inquiry
Count Won Bernstorff and DR.. Al
bert had accounts in 16 New York
banks Mr. Becker said