by Nigel West
On 7 June Miss Brandes turned Mrs Wertheim out and she then went to Miss Knowles for two nights. She was arrested in Miss Knowles’ house. When the police went to search her room, she entered the maid’s room, tore up a letter from George T. Parker and threw it out of the window. Among her papers, besides evidence showing that she had been recently in Berlin and had been communicating with German PoWs, there were found the address of Netta, wife of Dr Brandt; that of Althuis, 166 Loosduinschekade and letters of 7 and 18 May signed ‘Mother’ and ‘Suzette’ but written from Loosduischekade and by the same hand, which was that of Dr Brandt; letters from George T. Parker; an envelope addressed to R. Rowland; an Irish railway guide and Irish money; £115 in banknotes; a letter showing that she had applied to a Mrs Ausems for £50 to be sent in the name of her mother. This letter to which was attached Rowland’s visiting card, seemed to have been used as a letter of introduction. She had besides a bottle of scent and a tin of talcum powder.
An examination of telegrams showed that on 1 May, Wertheim had sent a conventional message to a known spy-address in Holland. In examination Rowland lied freely. He denied that he had ever been in the army but sprang to attention at the word of command. Eventually he made some sort of confession the gist of which, as regards German methods, was given above.
On preparing the case it was discovered by chemical examination that his passport was forged and a photograph of the genuine passport was obtained from America. The Germans had altered the age to suit Breckow’s appearance. Enquiries were made in America with regard to the firm of Morton B. Smith which denied all knowledge of Rowland. The news forwarded by Rowland was verified and that sent to him by Wertheim was carefully verified in its relation to her movements and the actual facts. The information of Rowland and of Wertheim was found to be correct. The enquiry involved a great deal of correspondence with Chief Constables in Scotland. Wertheim’s movements were fully proved but Rowland was never traced in Scotland, it seems unlikely that he ever went there.
Rowland and Wertheim were tried together in the civil court for Wertheim claimed her rights as a British subject. They were found guilty; Rowland was sentenced to be shot. He appealed, but the sentence was upheld, and it was carried out in October. Wertheim was sentenced to a long term of imprisonment.
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Fernando Buschman was a Brazilian subject of German origin. His mother lived in Vienna, his wife at Dresden. He had been in partnership with a man named Marcelino Bello in Las Palmas. The firm Buschman & Bello traded as general merchants and importers, and Buschman who was an engineer, dealt with the engineering branch of the trade. At some time not specified, but presumably on the outbreak of war, Buschman severed his connection with the firm, which then became known as M. Bello & Company.
On 26 August 1914, Buschman left Las Palmas and went via Barcelona and Genoa to Dresden and thence to Hamburg. He wrote to Bello from Hamburg. He returned to Genoa and wired thence to Bello for money on 18 March; from Barcelona he wired again on 26 March. A small sum was sent which Buschman promised to repay as he had obtained a post at the Brazilian legation in London.
Buschman landed at Folkestone on 14 April 1915. His passport, which had been issued at the Brazilian consulate in June 1913, bore visas issued in Las Palmas, 26 August 1914; Barcelona, 5 September 1914; Madrid, 3 April 1915; Paris, 13 April 1915, and Boulogne, 13 April 1915.
Thus there was no trace of his journey to Dresden and Hamburg which became known only through a letter from the British Bank of West Africa dated 6 July 1915.
In London, Buschman stayed at various hotels. He made a rapid friendship with a naturalised British subject of Romanian origin named Emile Franco, with whom he proposed to set up a commission agency for the sale of cheese, butter in tins, cotton, blankets, and soft soap to be imported from Holland, where Buschman stated that he had business. He also proposed to import cloth for the French armies from Spain. While in London, Buschman visited various firms with the ostensible object of renewing trade relations with the firm of M. Bello. He explained the change of style as necessary owing to loss of trade occasioned by the false belief that he, Buschman, was a German.
Entries in Buschman’s diary show that on 23 and 24 April he went to Southampton returning by Portsmouth. Emile Franco saw him buy his ticket; Franco and the head porter at the Piccadilly Hotel also deposed that Buschman had intended to visit firms of banana importers at Liverpool. On 5 May, Buschman crossed to Rotterdam, visited various towns in Holland and returned on the 16th. Soon after he went to live with Emile Franco and the two men took a flat together in Harrington Gardens. Immediately after Buschman’s first landing in England he had entered into telegraphic communication with H. Flores, Hilmar Dierks’ partner in Rotterdam, to whom he wired repeatedly for money. The money was sent at least twice through the Brazilian legation in London.
Buschman had also wired to Bello in Las Palmas for money. On 4 June a telegram from Dierks asking Buschman to return and confer with Flores was intercepted and Buschman was arrested. He was interviewed and denied having done any business with Dierks, against whom he had been put on his guard by von Staa, of the firm of Ivers & von Staa. He stated that Flores was engaged in selling guns to the French and he, Buschman, was dealing in picric acid, rifles and cloth. The investigation that followed Buschman’s equipment showed that Buschman had concluded no business in England, that on the other hand he was well equipped to act as a spy. He was a first rate mechanic, possessed a French authorisation to use the aviation ground at Issy, issued in 1910; he carried a French passport issued in Madrid on 9 April 1915. His papers, newspapers and music were covered with minute figures in secret ink and on a telegraph form there was a microscopic map in the same medium giving the positions of the headquarters of the British armies, corps and divisions in France during April 1915. A search of his papers and of old telegraph forms at the GPO gave proof of Buschman’s connection with Flores, with an address formerly occupied by Colonel von Ostertag, German military attaché at The Hague, and a leader in espionage, and also with a man named H. Grund who had written to Buschman making an appointment for a meeting in Holland. A letter signed Chr. J. Mulder referring to deals in cheese and surgical rubber wares, which was thought to be in code, also contained a reference to Grund and a promising deal in bananas.
The case against Buschman was one of great difficulty. As the telegram of 4 June had not been delivered it could not be produced in evidence, and corroborative evidence of the visits to Southampton and Portsmouth could not be obtained. There was no proof that the secret writing, which Buschman denied absolutely, had been done by him and the map was apparently also an unsatisfactory piece of evidence.
On the other hand there was abundant proof that Buschman had been in the pay of Flores, who was well-known from the evidence of other spy cases. In addition to the earlier evidence, the financial manager of the American Express Company had received an order to pay Buschman £50 on account of H. Flores.
For the purposes of prosecution it was important to establish the identity of Grund. During July 1915, the bureau obtained some evidence of proof that Grund was a German agent; while he was said to have recruited John de Heer for Antwerp it was certain that the spy Augusto Roggen had written to him from Scotland. Enquiries made in Holland showed that Grund was a German, an inspector of a German navigation company, who had no fixed address but lived on a tramp steamer in the harbour, and received his letters at the office of Ivers and von Staa. Von Staa was an officer of the German Reserve. Grund’s connection with the German Secret Service was attested by de Heer but it was evidence of a kind that could not be produced in court. The summary of evidence was taken on 18 August.
Buschman was tried on 28 September. He was charged on four counts under DRR 48 and found guilty of three of the charges, of committing preparatory acts to collecting and communicating information in contravention of DRR 18. The charge of attempting to elicit information was not proved. He was sentenced to be shot and was executed on 19 Oc
tober 1915. Shortly after Buschman’s arrest Regulation 18A was promulgated.
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Alfredo Augusto Roggen was a Uruguayan, whose permanent residence was stated to be Montevideo, landed at Gravesend on 30 May 1915, and from London despatched a telegram to Flores asking for funds. Roggen travelled as a farmer and approached a London firm with a view to buying horses to the value of £3,600, and a firm in Lincoln on the subject of agricultural machinery for importation into Uruguay after the war. But he had no letters of introduction and did not pursue the business after his one call. He was in Lincoln on the night of 4 June; on 5 he reached Edinburgh and put up at the Carlton Hotel, where Mrs Wertheim had been on 28 May. He went to the police to register on 6 June, spent the whole of Monday touring the Trossachs, and completed his registration at Edinburgh on 8 June. He went to the Tarbet Hotel on the 9th meaning to stay for eight or nine days, his excuse being health and a desire for quiet fishing. Tarbet lies within two miles of Loch Long, which was then in use as a torpedo station and a prohibited area. On the evening of 8 June, Roggen had posted two cards in Edinburgh, one addressed to Flores, the other to Grund. He announced that he had found a pretty place for fishing and walking in the mountains and to Grund he gave his address as Tarbet Hotel, Loch Lomond. Each card contained a message for ‘his girl’. The cards were intercepted and Roggen was arrested five hours after reaching Tarbet.
He was interviewed and gave an unsatisfactory account of his relations with Flores, whom he described as a friend of his partner in South America. The addresses found in a note-book of Roggen show refinements of precaution: 127 Binnemveg was half crossed out and written so close beneath the words ‘Consulado del Uruguay’ as to seem to be the address of the consulate in Amsterdam, the incorrect form. Ipers and von Staa was written immediately below a bogus address in Gainsborough. On a sheet of blotting paper was found a partly legible name which was taken to be G. Breckow. Connection between Breckow and Roggen was never established but it is to be noted that Roggen had stayed at the Bonnington Hotel and within easy reach of Breckow, who was then at the Ivanhoe Hotel, London. And in Edinburgh, Roggen had put up in the hotel visited by Mrs Wertheim.
A scent bottle and antiseptic talc powder were found among Roggen’s effects and secret writing was developed on several of his papers. But most important of all was a map of the North Sea torn from a Dutch railway guide, on which some minute characters, words and figures were detected, as well as stains of oil. The tester however, pointed out the difficulty of obtaining results that would satisfy the untrained eye that such marks were anything other than stains in the fibre and added that the Germans had probably relied upon this effect in choosing the method.
But to satisfy the strictest requirements of proof the expert carried out his test in the presence of other witnesses, and also carried out negative tests that proved similar reactions would not be obtained by treating the unmarked fibre of the paper in the same manner.
Roggen was tried by court martial on four charges: (i) of coming to England on 30 May; (ii) of going from Edinburgh to Tarbet on 9 June; (iii) and (iv) of writing to Flores and of writing to Grund which were preparatory acts to the collecting and communicating of information with intent to help the enemy. He was shot in the Tower on 17 September 1915. Concerning his identity, it may be remarked that his passport was issued on 11 May 1915 by the Uruguayan consul at The Hague. It was not called in question here, but the Minister of Uruguay who knew members of the rich and well-esteemed family of the Roggens, did not know Alfredo Augusto, and subsequently declared that both he himself and the Roggens thought Alfredo Augusto a thief and a liar and would take no part in his defence. One of Roggen’s methods was to represent that he had come through Switzerland and, had had great trouble with the German authorities.
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A Peruvian, Ludovico Hurwitz y Zender went in December 1914 from Peru to New York whence he sailed for Christiania on 16 February 1915. He landed at Newcastle on 11 April, reached Glasgow on the 12th, and on the 13th took up residence at Duncan’s Temperance Hotel. On the 20th he spent the night at Aberdeen and from the 21st to the 24th, stayed at Inverness returning to Glasgow on 24 April. On 25 May he left Glasgow and sailed for Bergen from Newcastle on the 28th. In Glasgow he is reported to have led a very quiet life, walking the golf links with the manager of the hotel, going twice down the Clyde on a Sunday, but not appearing to have any business or friends.
Early in June the bureau caused a scrutiny to be made of all telegrams sent during May from certain ports in the United Kingdom. Five telegrams sent by Ludovico Hurwitz from Glasgow between 15 and 24 May to August Brockner (or Brochner), 11 Todboldgatan, Christiania, attracted the notice of code experts. Ostensibly they were orders for different classes of tinned fish-goods, but the wording of the messages varied suspiciously and in a manner that resembled the arbitrary codes used by Roos and Janssen.
From the Chief Constable of Glasgow it was learned that Hurwitz y Zender had left the country meaning to return in a few weeks. The bureau having obtained a description of Hurwitz y Zender circulated it to the ports with orders for his arrest and rigorous search, adding that it was essential that the utmost secrecy should be observed. Neither the public nor press were to know of the arrest. On 2 July, Hurwitz attempted to land at Newcastle, was arrested and brought to Scotland Yard. Among other papers was a hotel bill showing that he had been to Copenhagen and a catalogue and price list of tinned fish and several tins of samples of these goods; he carried £84 in notes and £5 in gold. He had, among other objects, twelve new handkerchiefs and a bottle of medicine. Hurwitz declared he was travelling for the firm of T. Vidal, general importers of Lima, and that through the general agent, August Brockner, he had bought fish on their behalf. He was to have purchased handkerchiefs at Glasgow and various kinds of goods at Sheffield but he had done no business in England owing to the lack of specific instructions which he had expected but had not received by post. An agent sent to Christiania to ascertain the facts about Brockner, shadowed the man and saw him deliver a large envelope at the private house of the German ambassador, Brockner was also said to be in daily touch with the German consulate and to be organising German counter-espionage in Christiania.
The firm of T. Vidal in Lima did exist, but it had no standing or credit and was connected with the Germans. It imported goods through travellers from Manchester and the Continent. Eventually the whole correspondence between Hurwitz and Brockner was obtained, as also were five earlier telegrams sent from Glasgow to Aberdeen in April and early May. This correspondence was submitted to the destructive criticism of an expert in the fish trade. Hurwitz was ordering and Brockner transmitting his orders for fish out of season, in wrong quantities and packings. A summary of evidence had been taken in August but the trial was delayed owing to the necessity of getting documents from Peru.
Hurwitz was tried by court martial on 20, 21 and 23 March 1916, and condemned to death on four charges under DRR 48, of having twice committed a preparatory act in coming to England on 11 April and 2 July, and of having twice attempted to communicate information by sending a telegram on 15 and on 20 May. These two telegrams having been satisfactorily deciphered contained true information with regard to ships in the Firth of Forth. Hurwitz was shot on 11 April.
Three points are worth noticing: the general agent, Brockner, had in his office at Christiania only one class of goods, actually ties. Hurwitz carried one dozen new handkerchiefs and a bottle of medicine which was afterwards found to be Protargol. In the course of 1916, it became known that Protargol was a medium for secret writing and that ties and handkerchiefs were used by the Germans as vehicles for certain of these mediums.
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Kurt Harlot de Rysbach, known as Kenneth de Rysbach (alias Charles Courtenay, alias Jack Cummings) was a British subject who came to England via Switzerland and France on 27 June. He sent abroad sheets of music covered with invisible writing, twenty-four newspapers, eight letters and two telegrams. In order to do this wo
rk he had been released from a German prison for civilians. He established himself in rooms with an Englishwoman who was a trick cyclist and procured an engagement which was to begin on 2 August in a Glasgow music-hall. On 9 July, de Rysbach wrote to Mr J. Cords at the spy address used by Zender. In a secret message he stated that he had a brother on HMS Commonwealth who would furnish information and that he himself would soon get a post as interpreter in the War Office. A comparison of the handwriting of the letter with that of recent applications for interpreterships produced nothing, but from a check on letters to the crew of the Commonwealth, the brother of the writer was identified and also exonerated. De Rysbach who had given various pseudonyms, was traced by a letter to his brother in which he gave his address and stage-name and also his photograph. He was arrested on 26 July, as also the girl with whom he was living. Materials for secret writing were found in his rooms.
He was tried by the civil court on 20 September, the jury disagreed as to their verdict and he was remanded. On the second occasion, the jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to imprisonment for life. De Rysbach’s defence was that he came to England and promised to serve the Germans in order to obtain his liberty, and he had no intention to assist the enemy. Apparently that defence had some weight with the jury in the first trial. After his conviction he gave full details of his connection with the German Secret Service. He told how he had received instructions from German agents in Berlin and had been supplied with materials to be used for writing in invisible ink and addresses to which his communications were to be sent.
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The identity of the spy who was arrested and suffered death under the name of Irving Guy Ries was not satisfactorily cleared up till after his sentence. The real person of that name received a passport from the Department of State, Washington, on 10 March 1915 he was to visit Holland, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France and Great Britain. His mission was to take photographs for the Newspaper Enterprise Association in Chicago.