Evening star., 1918-07-27
DERNBURG SPEECH
EDITED BY HALE
Attorney General Says De-
tense of Lusitania Sinking
Was Passed On.
WHOLE CREW "LINKED UP"

By the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, July 27.-The speech
of DR.. Bernhard Dernburg at Cleve-
land. in May. 1915. in which he at
tempted to Justify the sinking Of
the Lusitania and which caused his
expulsion from the United States. was
prepared by DR.. William Bayard Hale,
self-confessed head of tho German
information service in America, ac-
cording to statement here last
night by Deputy State Attorney Gem
eral Alfred l. Becker.
Testimony given by q copy reader
for the information service. Mr.
Becker declared. was to the effect
that the address was edited and re-
edited" by Hale In this city. and tele-
graphed to Dernburg in Cleveland on
the day it was to be delivered.
Another revelation Of the attorney
generals inquiry into German propa-
ganda activities before Americas en-
trance into the war, which he is con-
Quoting at the request of the Depart
ment Of Justice. included testimony OF
rested recently in connection with the
alleged purchase of the New York
Evening Mail for the German gov
ernment, was introduced to him In
1915. as "the special protege" of DR..
Dernburg. The Introduction. he de-
Code Letters Revealed.
The attorney generals office also
made public a series OF code letters
written to persons in Germany by
George Sylvester Viereck, editor Of
the former pro-Germ9n Fatherland,
which since the United States has be-
come a belligerent has been known as
Viereck's Weekly. These letters were
intercepted before the American dec
laration Of war. Since that time, ac-
cording to Viereck's own admission,
he has sent mail to Germany through
neutral countries. This action, ac-
cording to the authorities, Is a viola
tion of the trading-with-the-en
act
The viereck code letters. some of
which were dated in 1916; apparently
were innocent communications on
family and personal subjects. but. ac-
cording to Mr.. Becker, they contained
information of political conditions In
this country.
LIT. dale'S J6SC1mouy.
Testimony of DR.. Hale and of the
German information news service
copy reader, whose name the authori-
ties withheld, which was made public
last night, linked the names Of Hale.
Rumely and Viereck with Dernburg.
DIR. Heinrich Albert. the German
financial agent in this country early
in the war, and other directors of
Teuton propaganda at conferences in
the Broadway building which held the
Offices Of the Fatherland, the German
DR.. Carl A. Fuehr. author of German
propaganda works.
Viereck was always there, Hale
testified, and some times Rumely was
present Before the alleged purchase
Of the Mail in June. 1915, he asserted,
there was talk of buying another New
York daily. a weekly or a monthly
magazine.
Hale Supervised Service.
The German Information service. ac-
mony. was personally supervised by
Hale. though the latter always in
sisted on secrecy regarding his activi-
ties. It WAS sent daily to many
American newspapers, and its general
trend, the witness said, was '-to cause
alarm over the possibility of q
Japanese invasion. and to urge the
Necessity of Intervention in Mexico :
There were subeditors and transla-
tors, he stated. including DR.. Carl
Mechlenburg, one time lecturer In the
universities of London and Dublin
who later fed to Mexico. and Prof
Harowitz, now in an American
internment camp. Proofs of the 1--WE.
page News sheet" the copy reader
testified, were sent invariably tc
Matthew B. Claussen, publicity agent
Of the Hamburg-American line.