Evening star., 1942-06-29
Soboteurs and the Law

A more story -book-like spy thriller
than the saboteur roundup just eff
fected by the Federal Bureau of In
vestigation would be hard to imagine.
Hollywood in it's more lurid moments
scarcely could have thought up a
drama as intriguing as that just
staged by J. Edgar Hoover's G-men
and two groups of Heinrich Hmm
ler'S specialists in sabotage. This
stranger than fiction melodrama had
everything-a carefully laid plot by
highly trained enemy saboteurs,
landings by submarine in the dead
of night on remote American
beaches, caches Of explosives and
incendiaries in the sand, and, finally,
the outwitting and capture of the
enemy agents.
The unexpected climax appended
to the Nazi plot by the FBI must
have made Hitler and Himmler very
unhappy, coming as it did in the
wake of recent mass roundups of
German spies in New York and else
where. The Gestapo did not plan it
that way. There is every indication
that this fantastic scheme was in
preparation for a long time-before
The United States actually was at war
with Germany. The eight would-be
saboteurs were carefully picked for
their knowledge of the United States
and their former contacts here as
residents. They were put through
an intensive course of training in the
construction and use of latest types
Of sabotage devices and materials.
They we're given detailed inStruc-
tionS as to specific objectives on
which to concentrate. And they
were provided with S150,00O in Amer
lean money for expenses, which
presumably included bribery if
necessary.
Everything progressed smoothly at
the outset, but within less than four
days after the first quartet had
landed on the Long Island shore
and buried their equipment for later
use, three of them were in custody
Of FBI agents in New York City.
Within less than two weeks all eight
were in handouts and all their
equipment - still unused was in
possession of their captors.
What will be the ultimate fate Of
these enemy agents? In Germany,
of course, saboteurS are shot with
little or no trial. Here they are as
sured at least of a fair trial, but
whether, if convicted, they would be
subject to the death penalty is a
matter for conjecture. If convicted
Of espionage, which, under existing
Federal laws, has to do only with
spying in the sense of obtaining in
formation. they could be executed in
time of war. But even if they had
succeeded in committing sabotage,
the worst that the aliens, at least,
could expect, unless they also had
engaged in spying, would be prison
term-presumably under the con-
spiracy statute, which carries a
maximum penalty Of two years in
prison.
The Hendricks bill, which has
passed the House and is now pend
ing in the Senate, seeks to correct
this astounding defect in the law. 1t
would provide heavy penitentiary
terms for convicted saboteurs. Un-
less amended to include conspiracy
to commit sabotage, however, this
bill would not be broad enough to
deal with such a case as that now
presented. Surely wartime sabotage,
and conspiracies to commit it, are
Offenses fully as grave as espionage.
The law should be strengthened so
that such dangerous activities as
those upon which the FBI's prisoners
were engaged could be dealt with as
effectively as espionage.