The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-06-26
ENEMY TRICK FAILS
| TO HIDE s3,5OO,0OO
Alien Property Custodian
Tears Away Camoufiage
of German Traders
CONTROL is TAKEN
OVER THREE FIRMS
Plot Indicated in Juggling of Property
by Use of American Misunderstanding
ton Will Be Demanded for Payment
on Fake Sale.

oH rake sale.
NEW YORK, June 26.-The cloak of !
an American corporation failed to keenl
property worth $3,500,000 from the
Alien Property Custodian. A. Mitchell
Palmer took over three firms which arc
closely interlocked, namely Dieckerhoff,
Raffloer & CO., importers and manufac-
turers of notions, at SOC Broadway. and
Raffloer, Erbsloh & Co., cordage manu-
facturcrs, of the same address. with
plants in Cuba, and the American Stor-
age company of Havana.
The custodian announced that his bu
reau of investigation has uncovered
many German plots to hide enemy as
sets under the cloak of American cor
porations loaned for the purpose. Fur
Their facts developed may disclose sew
eral million dollars more of enemy prop
erty and place number of Germans
and German Americans in serious posi-
ton.
A prominent law firm is mixed up in
the Dieckerhoff affair, and it was a let.
ter from a member of the firm. George
Carleton Comstock, that apparently
suggested the method of subterfuee to
| the Germans. Mr. Comstock 5 letter
was written on March II, 1917, before
this country entered the war or the trad
ing with the enemy act was placed upon
the statutes. In the latter Mr.. Com
I ~ mn a.
porations in this Office which are not
doing anything at this time; they have
/ been created for certain purposes, and
those purposes having been accom-
/ plished. are now available for other
uses. ~
The principals involved in the DECK
erhoff case are Ewald G. Dieekerhoff,
who has lived in this country for fifteen
years, but has never been naturalized;
1 Rudolph Erbsloh. now of New York,
who is4a native of Germany, but. who
has been naturalized; William H. Err
hart OF New York, an American eiti-
zen, who has one sister married to
/ Erbsloh, and another sister, Clara Err
hart Won Truehsess, who lives in Ger
many. Other owners living in Germany
are Johann HERMANN, Johann C. f.
| Rumpe. Mile Raffloer, Emma Crone.
Title Ramm and the heirs of Anna
| Erbsloh.
! The scheme devised to cover these
/ German holdings was to sell all the
/ German assets involved TO one or more
American companies and pay for them
in notes which would not mature for
three years. before which time it was
expected that the war would be over
and that at that time the property
could be turned back to the Germans.
The corporations then filed returns
! with the alien property custodian show
ing no enemy owned property In sup
port of these returns Dieckerhoff. the
German citizen, and Erbsloh. the Ger
man-born naturalizcd citizen. filed vo-
luminous affidavits swearing that such
transfers had been made in good faith
and that they had not been made in con
temptation of evading the trading with
the enemy act but simply to carry out
a plan that they had had in mind for
several years. George Carleton Com
lstock, their attorney, filed an elaborate
brief in support of the good faith of the
transactions and asserted that the sales
noted in the report were unconditional
and not inspired by any thought to
evade the law.
Before these reports, affidavits and
the brief of the lawyer were accepted
| the matter was referred to Francis p.
Garvan, director of the Bureau of In
vestigation, whose Investigations devel-
oped the fact that the entire procedure
stated in the papers presented by DECK
erhoff, Erbsloh and Comstock was a
! fraudulent scheme to protect enemy
| property.
The investigation further showed that
Comstock, the lawyer, outlined the en-
| tire plan to Dieckerhoff ein the letter
| written March II, 1917, in which he
1 advised his client to transfer property
to corporations which would hold the
same, free from restrictions which would
undoubtedly be placed upon them This
letter gave other details of a trust
which could be revoked at any time,
enabling the Germans to get their prop
erty back as soon as the war was over.
| Comstock IS letterhead shows him to be
in the same law firm with Peter B.
Olney
Comstock further advised Diaekerhoff
and Erbsloh Immediately to sell the
stock held by enemy aliens in DECKER
hoff, Raffloer & Co. to company which
could appear to take title and pay them
the purchase price at the end Of three
years, and if it did not pay the pur-
chase price at that time the property
could be returned. These things were
done as the lawyer suggested.
The firm of Dieckcrhoff, Raffloer & Co.
bought at par all the stock of the com
pany owned by stockholders in Ger
many. Taen the company resold il TO
German. Americans who were citizens
OF the United States. At the same time
Dieekerhoff himself pat all his property
INTO corporation called the Knicker-
bockers Investors company, one of the
corporations that Comstock had avail
able.
Raf1loer, Erbsloh & Co. was owned bv
practically the same stockholders as the
other concern and this stock was trans
Tered to another company furnished by
4 'omStoeE Had fbn -