Evening star., 1938-06-21
Hull Refuses to Discuss
Intrigue Charges Until
He Reaches Desk.
HIGH REICH OFFICIALS
ARE AMONG THOSE CITED
Only Four of 18 Are Under Arrest
Theft of Plane Plans and
Codes Are Accusations.
BACKGROUND

ring entered in military bases and
airplane factories near NeU York
City, and one high ranking Amer
lean Army officer was marked for
abduction.
Hy the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, June 21-With l8 per.
sons already indicted, the Fedora
Government stepped back today te
await possible international repercus-
sions before proceeding with it's ex.
posure OF what a special grand jury
described as a far-flung plot to steaI
American defense secrets.
Secretary of State Cordell Hull. re-
turning to Washington from the
Dartmouth College commencement ex-
erciSes, declined to discuss the intrigue
which was charged in series of in
dictments returned yesterday against
two officers of the German war min
astry and Is other persons.
He said he would "be able to CO.
operate with you newspapermen" when
he reached his desk in Washington.
Secretary Hull announced he would
1orego his customary summer vacation,
and would remain at his desk i,
Washington
1t was recalled that United States
Attorney Lamar Hardy conferred with
Secretary Hull shortly before the in
dictments were returned, indicating
that he desired Washingtons author
ity for releasing such sensational
charges.
Only Four in Custody
OF the 18 indicted, only four we're
IN custody. The others were in Ger
many, where they are safe from ex-
tradition proceedings.
The German foreign Office in Berlin
said it regarded the whole matter as
an attempt to create a sensation in
the United States for obvious reasons. !"
1T is quite evident that the allega-
tions overshoot the mark" a foreign
ONCE spokesman said 1T is not so
much a case of spies caught as spies
imagined"
But United States Attorney Hardy
indicated the investigation was far
from finished without saying there
: would be more indictments. The
grand jury, now in recess. was ordered
to hold itself ready for additional evil
dence
Conspiracy Is Charged.
The defendants were charged with
conspiring during the last three years
TO obtain United States defense Sc
crets and deliver them to the German
government or factions in Germany.
Two other indictments detailed specific
acts-theft of plans for an Army pur-
suit plane from the Seversky plant at
Farmingdale, Long Island. and theft
OF an Army and Navy code book.
Those available for prosecution are
. former woman hairdresser on the
German liner Europa, two former
United States Army soldiers and a
former Seversky plant mechanic
The others indicted included Capt.
1t. Erich Pfeiffer, head of the German
secret service; Capt-Lts. lido Won
Bonin and Hermann Menzel, German
air ministry espionage officers; sew
eral suspected agents of theirs; DR..
1gnatz Griebl, New York doctor who
fed to Germany during the investi-
cation; Werner Gutenberg, airplane
designer who fled similarly and Mrs.
Jessie Jordan, who was recently i'm
prisoned in England as German spy,
The Indictment of the presumably
unavailable German officials was re-
garded generally as an international
criticism, deliberately delivered after
consultation between Lamar Hardy,
United States district attorney in
charge Of the investigation, and Gov
eminent officials in Washington.
Digest of Indictments.
Here Is a digest of the indictments
delineation of the spy rings opera
ton:
The participants were divided into
= five groups
l. The high German officials, who
named the agents, directed their
operations and paid them
2. The working" group here-Erich
Glaser. %, German-born private-ir
the Army Air Corps at Mitchell Field
Long Island, until his arrest Gunther
Rumrich, 81, Chicago-born, who en-
listed In the Army Medical Corps in
1880 and deserted in 1885, and Otto
Voss, 36, German-born, the Seversky
mechanic
8. An intermediary group in New
York City which passed on the in
formation group obtained; headed
by the fugitive Griebl, assisted at one
time or another by Rumich and Will
liam Lonkowski, ace German secret
agent here during the World War,
who was indicted.
4. A messenger group who worked
as crew members on German liners
including the Jailed hairdresser
Johanna Hofmann, 26, and carried
data from group 3 to Germany.
S. An agency at Dundee. Scotland
operated by Mrs. Jordan, through
which orders, information and pay
were sometimes routed to avoid sus-
picion.
Aside from the two specific thefts
the indictments detailed "a "overt acts
meetings between Lonkowski, Voss
Griebl, Rumrich, Preiffer and others
always only in pairs-at Hampstead
and Floral Park, Long Island; Hotel:
Astor and Taft in New York, Buffalo
N. Y, and Berlin and Bremerhaven
Germany. The first of the meetings
at which secret data was sometime,
passed along. was August /, 1885, ant
the last January IS, this year.