ted by three
officers of the German Mercantile Marine on board Allied munition
ships, with the object of causing fires on the voyage. After America's
entry into the war, Rintelen and his accomplices were sentenced
on this count to fairly lengthy terms of imprisonment, and these
sentences they are serving at the present moment in the Federal
prison at Atlanta.

I have been unable to discover how far Rintelen was actually guilty
of the offences imputed to him; but I can only observe that he,
and, in so far as he acted under orders, his superiors, gravely
compromised the position of the German official representatives in
the United States, and afforded our enemies an excellent opportunity
of inflaming public opinion against Germany. It is impossible to
over-estimate the unfortunate effect produced throughout the world
by the discovery of bombs on board a German passenger-steamer,
and of their secretion in the holds of Allied munition ships.

Another attempt of a similar kind, which had most unfortunate results
from our point of view, was that attributed to a German, Lieutenant
Fay, who had likewise come to America in April, 1915, and two other
Germans, by name Scholz and Daeche. Their idea was to put Allied
munition ships out of action by means of infernal machines, fastened
to the rudders, and timed to explode shortly after their departure.
My first information concerning these gentlemen was the report in
the Press of their arrest, which was apparently effected while
they were experimenting with their apparatus under cover of a wood.
A telegraphic inquiry elicited from Berlin the reply that Fay was
absolutely unknown there; it is possible, however, that he had
really come to America on some business of an official nature.
He and his accomplices were sentenced in May, 1916, to several
years' penal servitude, although no proof was adduced that any
real damage could possibly have been caused by their contrivance,
which experts informed me was not a practicable one.

Last of all, on Bielaski's list comes the case of the German agent
Stermberg, of whom, also, I had never heard. In January, 1915, he was
arrested on a charge of having attempted to inoculate horses, purchased
for the Allied Armies, with disease germs. As his practical knowledge
was not great, his intentions were in excess of his performances.
Bielaski, in his evidence before the Senate Committee, at first
hesitated to mention this case at all, and was only in