The Daily Alaska empire., 1946-06-04
JUNEAU ROTARY
 HEARS ALAskA's
 FBI DIRECTOR
Talks on Espionage During War-Whifehead Reports
 on Soap Box Derby

VI SVuP IVA DCiUy
 L. A. Teege, head of the FBI in Alaska, was guest speaker today at the Juneau Rotary Clubs regular luncheon meeting in the Baranof Gold Room.
 MT Teege, here on an official visit from his headquarters in An chorage, told of the German es- pionage case of Fred Lewis, as an example of FBI work during the war
 The FBI first received Information concerning this case in 1942. At that time a German espionage agent, known to have operated in Mexico was allowed free entry to the U. s. and interned as an enemy alien. He was not prosecuted be- cause his espionage activities had not taken place in the U. s. and at i that time America had made war time pact with Germany concern ing spies of this sort so that the U, s. could get some of their own men out of Germany.
 A search of this man, however, revealed some important informa- tion reflecting that a powerful spy ring was operating in the vicinity of New York City.
 Big Shot"
 From this information, the FBT notified censorship of a man as- sumed to be big shot" spy, Fred Lewis. A letter mailed by Lewis to mail drop in South America was intercepted and when treated with chemicals proved that he was relaying vital information to tke German government. The com munication system involved mailing letters to South America, having them sent to Germany by plant" and the information radioed to Ham burg, from where German ships and planes were dispatched to destroy .U. s. vessels and planes whose route, tonnage, and time schedule had been given by the spies.
 The Fred Lewis letters were in- tercepted for many months. The inocuous- us-aprearing content of the letters mentioned dog with dis temper, victory garden. the fact that the writer was an Air Raid Warden in New York City. that his home was mortgaged and threat- cred by foreclosure.
 All these. facts were true, as the FBI assumed them to be- There were 93,000 Air Raid Wardens in New York City at that tine, how- ever. and no way of knowing whether or not Fred Lewis was the spy's real name
 Check Is Nude
 A check of all entries from Ger many for many years back finally resulted in signature that match ed the enc of Fred Lewis. It was signed by R. o. Gerson, who prov ed to be an Air Raid Warden, whose dog had recently been buried, whose home had been taken over by the bank, who had victory garden.
 After Gerson was arrested, FBI agents discovered a rev type of communications used by the Ger mans. Intercepted mico-film notes sent by espionage agents here often mention dots Finally it was dis covered that dots were tiny bits of film, so small they could be in- serted in typewriter period, or much smaller than a pinhead.
 The speaker told of cases where these dots contining information first written on regulation sheet of typewriter paper and then con- densed hundreds of times, were found in many odd places. One spy brought instruction information "dots" from Germany in the in- terlining of his tie, another had them stuck throughout his shoe tongue.
 Soap Bor Derby
 Preceding the FBI agents talk. pr. William M. Whitehead announce cd progress in the Soap Box Derby project. He said the test car was almost entirely finished, and the wheels for the racing cars have arr rived He asked that each Rotar-