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Show SWOBODA IS NOW PITEAMYSTERI Paris. April 2 6:10 a m Although the polii e investigation of the hlstor;. of Raymond Swoboda, charged wltli being responsible for the fire aDoard the Steamer l-i TounUno has brougnl cut additional fact? regarding him. he remains something of a mysiery. Sev era of his friends proress to consider the charges against him entirely un fou tided M Treses! a stockbroker who knew Swoboda well, saya he can spc no po sible motive for the art of which he Is accused. After hostilities began and business was suspended on ihc Bourse, according to Trescat, Swoboda Swo-boda sought some other occupation One of Hi"' plans he considered was In go to the I'nited States and oh-tain oh-tain samples of military eiotrunc equipment and tools which the minis try of war would be likely to pur-chas pur-chas Trescat asserts Swoboda finally decided de-cided upon this venture. He v;s;ted many factories in America, giving as a reference Broker Morrison, who is one of the most widely known gen eral merchants In Paris. Upon the strength of this reference he obtained th samples he sought, according to Trescat. The police credit the statement of If. Trescat for when they searched the offiiH iu the Avenue d- L'Opera (There five trunks belonging to Swo boda were stored, they found that two of them had been opened and the contents displayed in an adjoining loom. This display consisted of (loth woolen gloves, socks, leather metal Masks canned goods, boot, en trenching tools and even a complete French uniform. rneuds of bwoboda explain the photograph Id which he appears In j the uniform of a German officer bj Btatlng that he spent two years at lliedelberg to perfect himself in Gpr man and the picture probably was taken while be was wearing his students' stu-dents' uniform Plans in Swoboda's office which the police regarded as suspicious, his frienus sa, probably were left thereby there-by an uncle who is an architect at Vancouver and who recently isited him in Paris. M Ifommeja of the Bou.leard Hausaman, a banker who employed Swoboda ir. inu declared to reporters on the other hand that Swoboda rep-1 resented himself as a Canadian and said he did not know a word of (ier man but some time later he overheard Swoboda talking German fluently Over the telephone When the bank er called the attention of his employe to the conflicting statements he had made. Swoboda explained that he had studied at Hiedelberg Mommja became be-came suspicious, however, and dis charged Swoboda in 1913. Three days ago Mr. Mommeja heard that his former employe had been seen in a Paris cafe in company with suspicious persons He at once reported re-ported the matter to the local police According to statements made to newspaper reporters by residents of the suburb of Yiroflay, where Swoboda Swo-boda Ihed at one time, the man had long been regarded with suspicion. He was intimate in the Austrian-German colony and spent much of bib time with an Austrian named Padouk. A few days after the outbreak of hos tillties Swoboda was discoered at a late hour one night close to where 6ome important defense work was being be-ing carried out Uion being arrested, he explained he was an merlc-an and pleaded ignorance On the production pro-duction of satisfactory' papers he was allowed to go. The incident, however, according to the recitals of the people of Viroflay, made a stroug Impression upon Swoboda Swo-boda s neighbors and they decided to watch him. One night he was seen to go to the house of a man named PriiKKt Shortly after the two emerged and made their way cautiously cau-tiously in the direction of the local defense works, looking around meanwhile mean-while to see if they were being observed. ob-served. It was known that Prusst wat nn Austrian born in Vienna. Some time later Swoboda. disguised dis-guised as a mason, was seen coming com-ing from the defenses. The police were Informed of this but for some reason they took no action Weeks passed and finally on January 15 they arrested Pnisst and sent him to a concentration camp. By this time Swoboda had left Yiroflay and was on his way to America. no |
