Evening star., 1942-09-06
Three Arrested
As Jap Agents.;
7 Plead Guilty
Former Federal
EmpIoye Still
To Be Arroigned
BY OLIVER MCKEE.

The Justice Department an
nounced late yesterday the arrest
by the FBT of three men, includ-
ing a former employe of the Of
flee of the Co-ordinator of Inter-
American Affairs, on charges of
acting as unregistered agents of
the japanese government.
Those arrested were Walker Grey
Matheson, formerlu news analyst
in the Inter American Affairs Of
flee, whose Washington address is
listed as the Cavalier Hotel. $500
Fourteenth street NV; Joseph
Hilton Snyth, former newspaper
man and freelance writer of Old
Lyme, Conn, and Irvine Harvey
Williams, British subject of Nor
oton, Conn. Matheson went to
work for the Government on De-
cember 8, the day after Pearl Har-
Dor was attacked.
All three were seized on warrants
accusing them of failure to register
as agents of foreign principal, as
required by law, and each faces a
maximum penalty of 10 years ina.
prisonment and $1,000 fine.
Two Plead Guilty.
Matheson was arrested on Con-
stitution avenue shortly after noon
yesterday by special agents of the
Washington field Office of the FBI.
He is being held here in custody of
the FBI, and will probably be taken
to New York for arrangement early
this week.
Smyth and Williams were seized
in New York, and entered guilty
pleas when arraigned before United
States Commissioner Edward H.
Fay in Brooklyn late yesterday.
Both are being held in $4,000 bail
for grand jury action.
According to the FBI, Matheson
and Smyth were given $4,000 by
the Japanese consulate in New York
in June, 1888, to purchase the mag
azine Living Age. The Japanese
consulate also paid the deficit of
the publication in the amount of
$4,000 month until August, 1e41.
In return for this financial aid,
the FBI said, the magazine was to
carry at least one pro-Japanese ar
ticle in each issue. Some of the
articles published consisted entirely
of reprint material furnished by
members of the staff Of the Japa-
nese consulate,
| Joined Firm Later.
According to the FBI, Williams
later entered the agreement and
became president and general man
ager of the Living Age Publishing
Co. The stock of the publication
was held by the three men.
Matheson, who was discharged by
the Office of the Co-ordinator of
Inter American Affairs just before
his arrest, was born 40 years ago in
Alberta, Canada. He attended
school in Hawaii and then moved
to Japan when his father became
news editor of the Japanese Adver-
tiser and the Japan Times. Later
he lived in Peiping, Shanghai, RAN
COON and Toxic. Matheson took his
bachelors degree at the University
of Nebraska, and did some graduate
work at Harvard University.
Information at the Justice De-
partment showed that he had
worked on the New York Daily
News, the Washington Post and the
Washington Herald and had been
associate editor of the Fawcett Pub
lications. Matheson acquired his
American citizenship through nat
uralization.
Employed BY Consulate.
Smyth, also 40, was born in Ply
mouth, Mass, and after attending
Harvard University for a year en-
barked on writing career. He was
a foreign correspondent in Central
America from 1921 to 1923, and later
in Europe. From 1887 to Novem-
ber, 194l, according to the FBI, he
was employed by the Japanese con-
sulate in New York as a public re-
lations counsel at salary of $500
month and conducted for the
consulate a survey of Communist
activities.
Williams, 80, British subject, was
born in Kobe, Japan, where he lived
until 1928. He told the FBI that
he had studied at the University of
Freiburg, Germany, and that his
mother was German He was list
ed as an accountant by profession,
The three men were the first
whites seized by the FBI on charges
OF acting as unregistered agents of
the Japanese government, it was
said yesterday.
The pre-war activities of the men
have been under investigation bv
the FBI for some weeks. FBI sus-
plclon was initially aroused by tha
type OF material published in the
Living Age and the discovery that
the japanese consulate had ad-
vanced funds for the purchase OF
the magazine.