Evening star., 1939-02-05

NAZ1 SPIES IN AMERICA. BY
Leon G.. Turrou. New York
Random House.
Mr.. Leon G. Turrou is the former
special agent of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation Of the United
States Department Of Justice who
played a leading part in the expose
of the great Nazi spy ring in this
country last year. This is his story
Of that exploit. It Is an almost un-
believably fantastic thing.
Mr.. Turrou begins by telling how
In the town of Dundee. Scotland, q
local mail carrier had his suspicious
aroused by the large number Of
letters bearing foreign postmarks
which were delivered to q certain
hairdresser. He took the matter tc
his superlors and in due time the
letters were examined. It turned
out then that her home. was the
forwarding address for international
Nazi spies. Some of this gentry
were working in our own land. The
British officials sent the documents
which concerned us to our Bureau
Of Investigation. And Mr.. Tlrrou
who was assigned to the Job OF
catching the plottePs, has appar-
emily not had dull moment since
He found Nazi spies In every
waste basket and under every desk
in the country, apparently. He
seems to be nice fellow himself
and one cannot but sympathize
with his amazed state of mind when
he began to discover the ramifica-
tions of the German folly among
us. He could hardly believe the
things he found out, and still he had
to believe them. He apparently
went straight out of the world OF
sanity, into one Of frenzy and hys-
terra. He had to keep his own head
and seems to have done so. But
after time, 1t must have been hard
for him to distinguish between
moonshine and real matter for in
vestigation: there was so very little
actual difference anyhow. That
the reviewer imagines, will be the
thing which will impress readers OF
his book most-the consummate
Stiffness of most of the Nazi per-
formance.
Wild Schemes Unearthed.
Not, to be sure, that the German
spies were not working at some i'm
portant matters. They were getting
data on our air force and our Navy
they weer probing into the fortifl.
cations Of the Panama Canal BY
bribing minor officers and men in
our forces, they were getting a GER
tain amount of supposedly secret in
formation. But these serious efforts
are small in number compared to
the absolutely crack ain
schemes which Mr.. Turrou and his
aides discovered. To read of these
latter is like walking straight into
Alice in Wonderland" Or like
reading a list of wild inventions
such as the Patent Ofice sometimes
publishes.
And, in it all, the queerest thing
seems to be the motivation Of the
American Nazi-generally, of course
German-born or Of German up
bringing. These "spies" Mr.. Turrou
found among the Bunds, honest
enough citizens for the most part
but infected with that hysteria
which we have come to recognize a.
part OF the Nazi mentality. They
were not full-time agents. They
just got the idea of helping the
F'uhrer and waded in. The regular
spies-the real ones-made use OF
them when they saw f1t. AS Mr.
Turrou puts it:
There is no intention on my part
to indicate that the Bund is sub
versive or illegal. But since the
F. B. I. has proof-including con-
fessions-that some Bund leaders
actively tried to aid the Nazi spy
ring and to furnish it with military
defense secrets of the United States
some background of the Bund, some
picture of its methods, is entirely
called for at this point -"
Then he speaks of the Bund camps
which are, as he says, in the main
perfectly harmless and innocent
and proper" But, he adds. there
are some questionable activities in
them.
Speakers thunder hoarse visions
of the morrow" he continues
dreams of German world domi-
nance. They shout demands for
German representation here. shock
ingly similar to the words of Henlein
in Czecho-Slovakia. They quote
Josef Huenerfauth, a leading Nazi
philosopher: Primarily we are not
citizens of states, but racial COM
rades.' They quote the slogan Of
the Peoples League for Germanisn
Abroad: In admiration and deer
faith, our racial comrades in foreign
states look up to the Reich and it,
Fuehrer.' They sing the Nazi march
ing song, the Horst Vessel song
with its blood thirsty lines. The
speakers cite the names of anti
Nazis in this country, and after
them words that have become
ritualistic in Nazi camps: He will be
dealt with when the day of reckon
ing comes. And frenzied cheers
arise"
There is even more of it than this
but so much is enough. 1t makes II
plain that there is kind of German
who simply has to be thinking about
a tag" of some kind or other anc
who has to live his life in a dream
of revenge and bloody vindication-
Washington's Best-Seller List,
Week Ending February l. 1889.
Fiction.
ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO.
Field. Macmillan.
REBECCA. Du Maurier. Dou-
bleday Doran.
THREE HARBOURS. Mason.
Lippincott.