Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-27
Man Sought IL Years Admits
Blaze Started at His
Bench in Foundry.
DENIES HE WAS ACTING
AS AGENT FOR GERMANY
Material to Place Blame for War
Disasters to Be Laid Be-
fore Commission.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
New evidence in the $40,00O,OOO
sabotage claims against Germany, based
upon alleged responsibility OF German
agents for the Black Tom and Kings
land, N. j., disasters Of 1915 and 1917.
shortly is to be laid before the Mixed
Claims Commission.
The evidence tells how Theodore
Wazniak. who worked at the Kinssland
Foundry and had been widely sought for
more than IL years. appeared at the
once of the German agent of the COM
mission ia Washington several weeks
ago, admitted that the Kingsland fire
started at his workbench. denied that
he was In the service of Germany and
told how he had lived in New York
while the search for him was In prog
ress.
Evidence Fills Five Volumes.
Tender Of the evidence mass of
documents and papers filling five vol
umes-produced in the commission "A
state of tension virtually unmatched in
the history of this body. Immediately
after 1t was offered the American agent
submitted objections to its admission.
This move brought reply from the
German agent. and now the commission
must decide what parts, II any, OF the
new material is to receive consideration.
meet United States charges duplicating
directly two other alleged German
agents-Kurt Jahnke, admitted head
of the German secret service In this
country during the war, who has now
returned to his home and become
member of the Prussian Diet. and
Lothar WitZke, the only German spy
who ever was convicted and sentenced
Hamburg for a vacation. The United
States. having been tried at Fort Sam
Houston, Tex The death penalty later
was commuted.
To Consider New Material.
!. Germany's commissioner, DR. Will
helm Kieselbach, recently returned to
Hamburg for a vaction. The United
States member. Charles p. Anderson,
to meet there and consider the new
IN. Karl Won hevinski, consul general
ats New York and the German agent
Of the commission, has just sailed for
Berlin 1t Is understood he will give
a report on the case to his superiors
In the government.
Reading like so many chapters from
a war novel, the new evidence tells how
4 representative OF the German agent
received a telephone call from New
York to the effect that q man de-
scribing himself as WaZniak had ap-
peared at the consulate there and de-
clared his identity. He said he had
read a new story Of hearing the COM
mission held last Winter, and that he
had remembered his own connections
with it.
Far from being a German agent,
the man said he was Russian SYM
pathizer, the evidence explains. and he
wanted to tell his story to the proper
authorities.
Saw Flames Ignite Gasoline.
Describing how civil authorities held
him for questioning Immediately after
the KingsIand fire, he is quoted as
saying he told them at the time that he
was employed in the foundry. and how
he noticed the fires beginning-a small
flame that leaped from q machine at
which he was at work, into a con-
tainer of gasoline, spreading quickly
thereafter until it destroyed the tre-
mendous quantity of munitions held
nearby.
Wazniak is said to have declared he
never disappeared" as the United
States agent holds he did after the
first investigation. The German agent
has produced hospital, Army draft and
court records in support Of this state
ment. The United States contention is
that Wazniak was seen during this
period confraternizing with other known
German spies in Mexico.
Other records included in the new
evidence purport to show that Jahnke
said by the United States to have
set the Black Tom explosion in New
Jersey, across the harbor from Govern
ors Island, N. Y.-signed a time sheet
only two days earlier while working
as q watchman at the Anglo-London
& Paris National Bank Of San Fran
cisco.
OF Witzke, the evidence offers to
show that he wrote, from California, q
letter. to his parents, dated two days
before the explosion. for which the
American case holds him, with .Jahnke
and one Mike Kristoff, responsible.
Kristoff died last year.