Evening star., 1944-09-14
Rogge Starts Efforts
To Link I Defendants
With V-Postcard5
Transcript Of Testimony
Given by Viereck and
bennett to Be Offered
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES,


Efforts to link two defendants in
the sedition case with the so-called
"" card describing the reptiles
and diseases awaiting soldiers in
West Africa we're started today by
Chief Prosecutor o. John Rogge in
District Court.
Mr.. Rogge announced he was
prepared to introduce a transcript
of testimony these defendants,
George Sylvester Viereck and
Prescott F. bennett, gave before a
District grand jury.
! While the "V" post card was in
troduced in evidence weeks ago, the
Government did not at that time
connect it with any particular de-
fendant. The copy admitted as an
exhibit allegedly was seized at Ger
man-American Bund headquarters
and had been addressed to it's ON
cial newspaper.
Not mice Land"
The card. headed West Africa is
not Iceland--it's anything but a
nice land" said:
80 they want to send our boys
to Africa. there to tackle typhus,
typhoid, the dread tsetse fly, Sleep
ing sickness. dysentery. malaria and
the bubonic plagued" The card
added: w is for victory. These vain
visionaries would send our valiant
vanguards to Africa,s vilely vicious
climate, victimized by verminous
voracious insects, venomous snakes,
vitiating tropical diseases. voo-dooed
and hoodooed by the horrors of war
in the hottest hell on earth"
Mr.. Rogge offered to stipulate
with the defense that two court
stenographers would testify that
they took down the grand jury rec
ords to be offered All defense attor-
neys agreed to save time by enter
ing into such a stipulation, but
Ellis o. Jones. a defendant repre-
senting himself, refused. Chief JUS
tice Edward C. Eicher held that the
single objection would make the
stipulation ineffective.
The prosecutor said one of the
court reporters was out of the city
at another hearing and would have
to be sent for. This phase of the
case was deferred for the time being
johnson j. Hayes, jr., FBI agent
at Los Angeles, continued testimony
he began late yesterday. He de-
scribed a conference which William
Dudley Pelley. a defendant, then
leader of the Silver Shirts, held with
Bund officials, including National
'Fuehrer" Fritz Kuhn. The con-
ference, the witness said, was re-
lated by another defendant. Herman
Max Schwinn, former West Coast
Bund leader, at Terminal Island,
Federal detention station in Cali
fornia. Mr.. Hayes said Schwinn told
him Pelley discussed the future aims
of the Silver Shirts with Bund
officials.
Pelley Spoke in Bund Center.
Pelley, the witness said Schwinn
told him. addressed Silver Shirt
meeting at bund headquarters, at
tended by large number of bund-
lists.
Schwinn, according to Mr.. Hayes,
signed consent to search" paper.
on which the FBI seized books and
documents at the Aryan Bookstore,
located at Los Angeles bund head
quarters. and in Schwinn's Office at
the Deutsche Haus, bund headquar-
ters. Schwinn, the witness said, ex-
planned he had supervised the book
store, which another defendant,
Hans Diebel. had operated for the
bund.
Members of the armed forces at
tended meetings in Los Angeles
sponsored by the Friends of Prog
ress. at which, shortly after Pearl
Harbor, the war was denounced and
audiences asked not to support it,
an earlier witness said.
The witness was Pfc. John I. Nc
Laughlin, Marine Corps, who cor
roborated testimony of his wife.
Mrs. Betty Lee Mclaughlin, in de-
scribing the meetings.
The 26 defendants are charged
with conspiring to incite the armed
| forces to diSlovaltv and ynutinv