DIES COMMITTEE FINDS A "NAZI SPY SYSTEM." Representative Dies of Texas is no favorite of civil libertarians, and his House Committee on Un-American Activities has been raising a hue and cry about Nazi and Red spies in our midst for some time -- without producing much in the way of evidence. But he just might be on to something now. According to last night’s radio news reports, the Committee has issued a 500-page white paper on the workings of the Nazi espionage network in America (which should be extensively covered in today’s papers). The white paper claims to have no less than a copy of a secret, detailed German plan for reorganizing the U.S. economy along Nazi lines.
What’s more, an Associated Press dispatch (printed on the front page of Tuesday’s Washington Post) details the dramatic appearance of an ex-Nazi agent at the Dies Committee’s secret hearing on Monday night. Heinrich Peter Fassbender, a 23-year-old alien who went by the name Harry Smith, testified to receiving several payments of $100 and $200 from German diplomats. He possessed photographs of U.S. industrial plants and confessed to spying on economic and military targets. The Committee also staged raids on ten Chicago-based organizations led by men of German and Italian ancestry, seizing letters, financial statements and membership lists.
On the one hand, it’s impressive to hear some first-person evidence of what’s been alleged extensively about the connection between Nazi diplomatic officials in the U.S. and plans for sabotage. On the other hand, Fassbender looks like a pretty small fry, and apparently has no connection to any of the incidents of possible sabotage that have been reported. And no doubt these "raids" won’t impress either F.B.I. Director Hoover or Attorney General Jackson, both of whom consider Dies a reckless investigator. But then -- the F.B.I. hasn’t said a word about any of the sabotage investigations it’s been conducting for almost four months, and hasn’t nabbed any saboteurs yet. As long as the Justice Department keeps mum, the Dies Committee and the press will step into the vacuum and try to provide a frightened public some real information. Is what we’ve been hearing over the last week reliable? I don’t know, but it’s plenty worrisome.
WHAT NEXT FOR THE AXIS? (II). Russell Hill writes in Wednesday’s New York Herald Tribune that southeastern Europe is "in a state of semi-war." After traveling via train through Greece, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria, Mr. Hill reports that the Yugoslavs are actively mobilizing (though they don’t call it that), and that the Bulgars plan to start blackouts on Saturday -- they are calling classes of men to the colors as well, though no official mobilization has been announced. It’s all in response to Hitler’s "complicated diplomatic game," and diplomats are predicting the Nazis are about to go on the offensive again -- "Speculation in Sofia has Hitler striking across Bulgaria at Greece to help Italy; making a deal with Russia to isolate Turkey, and throwing his troops across the Yugoslav frontier, as they were thrown across the Belgian and Dutch frontiers last spring."
King Boris of Bulgaria was summoned to Germany for a visit with Hitler last Sunday, and Sigrid Schultz writes in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune that King Leopold of Belgium has been "escorted" to southern Germany for talks with Hitler. Writes Miss Schultz -- "The Germans are speeding up efforts to erect the structure of a new Europe under Nazi leadership. Small countries are being invited to officially proclaim their cooperation with the axis partners. If they accept all terms of the axis they even may be granted the title of member of the axis." Spain has apparently been "invited" to receive this honor as well, and several Associated Press dispatches in recent days have discussed the possibility of German troops knifing through Spain to attack the British at Gibraltar.
Hitler might have special reason to hurry -- Mussolini’s setbacks on the Greek front have turned into an out-and-out pasting. One radio report this morning says the left wing of the Greek Army has smashed the Italian lines "on a wide sector" and that the Fascists are fleeing the battle area so quickly that the Greeks can’t keep up. Two Greek army corps have reportedly moved into the gap, with five Italian divisions hastily pulling back. One could enjoy this news a lot more if not for the realization that a sudden and large influx of Nazi troops into the Greek campaign, now likely to happen very soon, will almost surely write a bitter finish to these exciting stories of Greek victory and Italian humiliation.
NOW, BIRMINGHAM. Percival Knauth reports in Wednesday’s New York Times that German bombers have surpassed in destructiveness their terror raid on Coventry last week with yesterday’s attack on Birmingham, another major Midlands city --
"The Birmingham attack started just after dark, it is stated, when clearing skies gave promise of favorable weather throughout the night. Flying into England on a wide front, German planes converged on their objective, attacking in a mass, while new formations followed. The first wave dropped numerous incendiary bombs, it is stated, which started more than 20 huge fires. From then on the city was brilliantly illuminated so that the formations following were able easily to to spot their burning target and drop their bombs in full flight....[The attack’s] destructive effect is held by informed quarters to be greater than the raid which razed Coventry only a few nights ago. No estimate is forthcoming on the number of planes involved. The operation is described, however, as a ‘large-scale attack’ which is the superlative term in German military phraseology."
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