Evening star., 1941-12-11
+. B. |. Begins Probe
OF Citizens Whose
Loyalty Is Suspected
leeol Complexities Make
Job More Difficult Than
Rounding Up Aliens

The Justice Department today
turned attention to Americans of
questionable loyalty as an offshoot
Of the roundup of alien enemies.
The Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion was understood to be scrutiniz-
ing particularly those persons sus-
pected of fifth column" activities,
and those who have been propagan-
dizing on the Axis behalf.
Estimates of the number of sus-
poets were unavailable, and officials
took a cautious attitude toward this
phase of the Governments work be-
cause of the legal complexities in
volved. 1t was explained that while
and German, Italian or Japanese
of questionable background may be
picked up as an enemy alien, with
out formality, no American citizen
may be arrested except on a charge
violating the law.
In the initial sweep which netted
2,303 Axis nationals the Govern
ment agents took into custody the
Princess Stephanie Hohenlohe, the
Hungarian commoner who married
royalty, and who in recent weeks
has been living in Alexandria, it
was reported last night by the Asso-
ciated Press.
Princess Was Ordered Deported.
The princess, nearing so and
once the reputed friend of high
Nazi officials, was ordered deported
In San Francisco in May, as an
alien whose presence was considered
''inimical" to the best interests of
this country. She was in the coun-
try on a Hungarian passport.
The Government encountered the
same trouble in her case, however,
as in those of several thousand
other aliens, no country being will
ing to receive her. Eventually the
proceedings we're abandoned. and
she came to the Capital, register
ing in a hotel at NJ. de Stepessy
and later taking up residence in the
800 block of Beverly drive, Alexan-
drla, with her mother and q youth
whom neighbors assumed to be her
son.
Neighbors said this morning that
there had been no signs OF life
around the house for two weeks
The princess last night was lodged
In the immigration detention sta
ton at Gloucester, N. j.. near Phil
adelphia, with a group of IS aliens
reportedly apprehended in Eastern
Pennsylvania.
. Meanwhile. with members of the
staff of the Japanese Embassy con-
dned to the establishment on Mas
sachusetts avenue under guard of
F. B. I. agents, the State Depart
ment last night released sufficient
Japanese funds to purchase food and
other necessities for diplomatic and
consular officials of that country
here and elsewhere in the United
States. The department emphasized
that this arrangement was made on
strictly reciprocal basis"-assur-
ing similar treatment for American
diplomatic officials in Japan.
No Outside Contacts.
No move has been made. however,
to permit outside contacts by those
confined at the Embassy, these re-
straints applying also to employees
there.
The State Department also an
nounced that it had informed the
German Embassy, in response to
inquiries, that a number of German
correspondents in this country had
been held for investigation" the
list including Kurt Sell, for many
years correspondent here for D. N.
B., the official German news agency.
The correspondents are being
lodged in hotels or their homes, and
at the conclusion of the investiga-
ton it was expected several would
be released.
A member of the German EN-
baSsy staff yesterday visited Mr..
Sell. insuring the Embassy's salts
faction with his treatment.
Other developments were:
The State Department announced
that o. Edmund Club, American
Consul at Hanoi, French Indo- China,
and Miss Iris johnson, a clerk, had
been arrested by Japanese military
authorities. Both were described
as safe and we'll
The House completed congress
sional action on legislation to give
the Navy complete authority to
purge the American merchant ma
rine of any subversive operators.
Seattle authorities reported that
two brush fires, possibly serving as
"beacons" to point the way to
Seattle and Bremerton Navy Yard,
had been discovered by State pa
trolmen
Ross Cunningham, assistant to the
Governor, reported that identity of
the persons who set the fires was
known but that so far as he knew
no arrests had been made. He gave
this version of the incident:
Brush fires we're burning on the
Olympic peninsula Tuesday, set by
persons clearing land. State Patrol
men w. L. Lane and Howard Hurd,
IN the vicinity, noticed no signif-
eance to the blazes until they
burned low
Then the fires, on opposite sides
Of the highway, appeared to re-
semble arrows, one pointing in the
general direction of the Bremerton
Navy Yard, the other toward Seattle.
The patrolmen extinguished them
Resembled Arrows.
State authorities reported the fires
to Army officers and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and then
withdrew from the case.
At Port Angeles, Sheriff Charles
Kemp said the fires were in brush
which had been piled in windrows,
100 yards or more in length. He re-
ported fires we're set again yesterday
in the same vicinity but later were
eXtinguished on Army orders.
Sheriff's officers and firemen at Port
Angeles were skeptical about the
fires having any significance.
Mexico plans to construct many
more military cities and model bar
racks.