Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-12-10


MAJ. GEN ERWIN LAHOUSEN.
there to find information and send
it back to Germany.
Il am now coming to the affair
itself. 1t took place in the sum-
mer of 1912 The military depart
ments that were interested in this,
such as the air force or the arma-
ment office of the German Army
became increasingly worried and
approached Canaris repeatedly to
take some action to damage Amer
lean resources.
He, however, stalled them off for
a while by saying he shared their
opinion entirely that something
would have to be done, but that
he had no people in America at
the time because the Foreign Office
had forbidden him to do that sort
VA 4liCll"1 dlll llOl QulUC Sul e
whether it was in March or April,
1927 accompanied Canaris to the
headquarters of the Fuehrer, and
evidently the people who were in
terested in this had gotten in touch
with the Fuehrer and he called 1t
to Canaris' attention that some
thing would have to be done. The
Fuehrer made a remark about this
in an unmistakeable manner to
Canaris and stated that the great
est activity would be necessary in
America.
Mission Prepared.
THE first contact that we had
with this affair was when suddenly
one day an SIS man by the name of
Kappe appeared at our office and
said that he had number Of peo-
pie ready to undertake such mis-
sion, that all of them had lived in
America and were quite familiar
with the ways of American life and
that one of them was even an Amer
lean citizen.
They now demanded that some
thing be undertaken so that they
could be used. There was nothing
that they would rather do than die
for the Fuehrer These people ap-
parently belonged to some kind of
German-American group. I do not
know whether they came from the
association for Germans abroad. I
am not quite sure from where they
came.
"Canaris already was in a glass
house, that is he already had been
suspected of his secret activity and
could not afford to have any more
stones thrown at him. He con-
suited me as an expert in such
things, and 1 told him that because
of the great number of persons in
volved in the enterprise I would
have to count on failure. But here
were eight fanatical Nazis who were
just itching to get to work.
"Canaris replied in his typical
manner, Well. we will lose eight
good Nazis then Then the affair
took the course that I believe is
generally well known now. Those
people were transported and they
were apprehended before they could
ever go into action.
From our point of view, mean
from the point of view of the in
telligence service. this was the
greatest failure ever. I forgot to
mention before that I had at once
suspected one of the eight to be
an American agent.
Il mentioned that to Canaris
when he discussed the thing. When
you asked me before about the
American OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES serv-
ice I said I thought it was good.
And here is proof that it was good.
This affair had the code name Pas
torius. The mans name who I sus-
pected as being planted by the
Americans is Dasch."
Refers to Diary.
Lahousen then referred to the
official intelligence diary and read:
THE sabotage detectives, appar-
emily from propaganda reasons,
were misrepresented and played up
sensationally. For instance it is said
that the sabotage action was to be
directed against an important rail-
road bridge in New York and against
power house at Niagara Falls. Both
detectives were never given for en-
terprise Pastorius. According to
American news it must be assumed
that all participants in this enter
prise will be executed.
The real detectives" Lahousen
continued, were some aluminium
factories.
Hitler reproached Canaris next
time we went to the Fuehrer's head
quarters in Eastern Prussia.
Hitler Critical.
Hitler made some very critical
remarks about this entire enterprise
which caused a great stir and was
exploited for propaganda, too. Ca
naris told Hitler that these people
had not been trained agents, but
people from the party which the
party had furnished. And then
Hitler made the historical remark
We'll why didn't you take Jews for
that
Il was present when Hitler made
this remark. When we left the
Fuehrer's headquarters Canaris said
to me, You were witness when he
told me to use Jews
"Whereupon he (Canaris) went
back to Berlin and said that it was
the Fuehrer's orders that Jews hao
to be given jobs in the intelligence
service.
Then he was called to Berchtes-
gaden again and taken to task by
the Fuehrer about using Jews
whereupon he discontinued the
practice"
Asked if there were any othe,
sabotage missions which were sue
cessful but which the Americans
heard nothing about, Lahouser
said:
mot as far as I know Only this
This was the only case"
Picard Is Offered Big Job
! MIAMI, Fla, Dec. 10 Ap.-Asid,