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Show VATICAN OFFICIAL IS UNDER SUSPICION Blowing Up of Italian Warships War-ships Results in Arrest of More Than 40 Persons. ROME, via Paris, Jan. 8, 3:00 p. m. More than forty persons now are im prisoned as a result of the investigations investiga-tions into the destruction in September, 1915, and August, 1916, respectively, of the Italian battleships Benedetto Briu and Leonardo Da Vinci. The latjfir was blown up in Tarento harbor and 248 men perished. Lieutenant General Count Cadorna, chief of staff, came to Rome on Thursday Thurs-day to attend a meeting or the cabinet which was held for the purpose of deciding de-ciding upon the disposition of the prisoners, but the question has become a political one from the introduction into in-to the case of the name of one of the officials of the Vatican. An Italian named Ambrogetti, who was among those charged with being implicated in the destruction of the warship, claims to be the financial agent of Monsigneur Gerlach, Pope Benedict's private chamberlain. Mousigneur Gerlach Ger-lach is an Austrian and, according to information here, was once a cavalry officer who became a priest and won tlie favor of the present pope when the latter was a cardinal. he was the bearer of the red hat from the pope to the three French cardinals w ho were appointed ap-pointed at the December consistory, it has been learned that Monsigneur Gerlach, Ger-lach, previous to Italy's entry into the war, was interested in a pro-Austrian paper at Vittoria, of which Ambrogetti was manager. The Italian authorities have learned details of the plot which ended in the destruction of the two battleships from the Italian author, Archita Valente, who was arrested some months ago. The suspicion that the explosions on the ships were due to a conspiracy originated origi-nated from the fact that certain naval machinists were aboard the ships at the time of their destruction and on each occasion escaped uninjured. They were followed to Valente 's house in Rome and were there arrested. |