Evening star., 1944-02-20

which shed light on his amazing
activities since he left this country
in 1887, shortly after sponsoring an
abortive plan for a grand tour of
American industry by the Duke and
Duchess of Windsor The royal
couple were wed at his chateau In
France
The Justice Department dossier
pictured the industrial engineer as
a close cola aborator with the Nazis.
He rented summer home" the
departments statement said, "in
Berchtesgaden Ohe seat Of Hitler's
eagles errieD In 1887, and there
made the acquaintance of Capt.
Fritz Wiedemann, Otto Abetz, HAL
mar Schacht and others. AS a
favor to Weidemann, he set up a
new branch Office Of one OF his COM
panies in Turkey and appointed as
its manager a German named
Rosenbush, who had been one of
Hitler's superior officers in the Ger
man Army during the first World
War.
AS Rosenbush was a Jew, his
continued presence in Germany was
considered embarrassing to the
Fuehrer. Bedaux was visiting at
the home of Joachim Won Ribben-
trop in Salzburg in August, 1899,
when the Foreign Minister received
word to fly to Moscow to conclude
the German-Russian non-aggression
pact.
When France fell in 1910, Bedaux
made his chateau available to the
American Embassy when part of the
staff left Paris. He travelled back
and forth between the two zones
|of France and carried on various
negotiations with both the Germans
and the Vichy French. His friend
Abetz was now the Nazi Ambassa-
dor in Occupied France, and they
conferred frequently. He was also
on intimate terms with prominent
figures in the Vichy government
and, on occasion, acted as an un-
offlcial intermediary.
Invited to Berlin.
I'm July, 1941, he went to North
Africa at the behest of the Vichy
government to inspect operations at
some coal and lead mines. In No.
vember of that year, he developed a
plan whereby the oil refineries on
the Persian Gulf could be protected
by the Germans against bombing,
the Germans then being confident
that Rommel's drive toward Egypt
would be successful and that the
ref1neries might fall into their
hands. He was invited to Berlin to
discuss this plan with the military
authorities, less than a month be-
fore the declaration of war between
this country and the Axis.
"Bedaux was subjected to house
arrest in his Tours chateaux for a
period Of two months after Pearl
Harbor. He was then released. His
relationship with both French and
German officials remained cordial.
He arranged through Abetz to have
close friend, Capt. Ledebur, trans
ferred from combat duty on the
Russian front to a post in the oc-
cupation forces.
After the entry of the United
States into the war he offered the
German military authorities infor-
nation in the files of the Interna-
tional Bedaux Co. at Amsterdam
about the Persian Gulf ref1neries,
which was to be used in connection
with the plan to protect the re-
flneries for the Germans. Through
Ledebur he managed to have all
the files and documents of his
Amsterdam headquarters trans
ferred to Paris, released from the
control Of the German enemy prop
erty custodian, and turned over to
his brother, CASTOR, a French ma
tional.
Mapped Pipeline.
I'm the summer of 1912 Bedaux
undertook the construction of a
pipeline across the Sahara Desert
to bring, he said, edible oil from
French West Africa to shipping