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Show IEESMIU 1! IT j BE GUILTY OF I 1 OFFEE SALT LAKE. Feb. 13. No decision has been reached by the federal civil authorities as to what action shall be taken In the case of the Rev. B. Henry Leesmann, pastor of St. Paul's Evangelical Evan-gelical church of Ogden, who was caught in the act of attempting to smuggle, a note from a woman to a civilian enemy alien Interned in tho Third Avar prison. camp at Fort Douglas. Doug-las. United States District Attorney W. W, Ray Is making a careful investigation investiga-tion of the circumstances surrounding the actions of the Ogden pastor and is looking up the law in the matter to determine whether the minister has violated the provisions of tho federal constitution. The federal officers announced yes- i terday that they were inclined to be- lieve tho pastor's act was more one of ; indiscretion rather than premeditated ( design, but the matter will bo fully Investigated. In the meantime the i pastor Is being held in the city jail i subject to further 'action by the fed- eral officials. ( First Disloyal Act The prison officers and the federal officials declare they have no evidence that the pastor has been involved in any other attempt to carry information informa-tion between persons on the outside , and those inside the prison camp "and there is nothing to show that he has ; been connected in any way with any of the attempts of prisoners to escape. So far as the evidence has developed the act of the pastor Sunday night is his first disloyal act in connection with his pastoral duties at the prison camp. Preparations were under way at the camp yesterday to move the civilian prisoners from the section they occupy to another part of the camp. The new location of the civilian section is not made public, Cor military reasons, but the change, it Is believed. will check the attempts to escape and enable the prison officers to keep better informed on tho actions of the civilian prisoners. pris-oners. Civilian Section Grows. The rapid increase In number of civilian prisoners held in tho camp made enlargement of the civilian section sec-tion necessary and It was decided to move the location at the same time. There are now more than 200 civilian enemy aliens Interned In the camp onI Vr nrloAM rffioTnlc Iiota oc1vIric ttfal no less than fifty more of this class of prisoners are due to be delivered de-livered hero soon. Information has been received from San Francisco that eleven enemy aliens have Just been turned over to the military authorities by the federal civil officials for internment at the local post, and these are expected to arrive here at any time. Among the eleven prisoners are two who aro said to havo been agents of, the kaiser in supplying German raiders raid-ers in the south Atlantic at the outbreak out-break of the war. They are Rolf Bar-tel. Bar-tel. former assistant storekeeper at tho Lane hospital, San Francisco, and William Bernhardt Loeber, formerly employed as a streot car conductor. Supplied German Ships. According to information given out by federal authorities at San Francisco, Fran-cisco, Bartel and Loeber were at Buenos Aires and, as agents of Germany, Ger-many, assisted in operating tho steamer Sierra Cordobe, supplying German warships lately destroyed by the English In a battle off tho Falkland-islands. It is claimed that the Cordobo supplied the German ships Kronprlnz Wllhelm, Scharnhorst, Dresden and Gnelsenau. Both men are said to he expert electricians and are alleged to have directed communication communica-tion between tho mainland and the raiders. When the Cordobe was Interned In-terned at Callao the men made their way to the Pacific coast, where they wero arrested February 1. Among the other prisoners who are to be sent hero are Gustav H. Wild, ;ormer cashier of the Heidelberg Inn, San Francisco; Ernest Hensen, for-ner for-ner second mate of the German vessel ves-sel Ottawa; George Arlt H. Finke, Carl berson, George Pioch, William Kurz-.veg Kurz-.veg and Carl Wock, arrested for al-eged al-eged pro-German activities in Manila md delivered in San Francisco recently re-cently by the transport Sherman; Emil Schonderlein, arrested by the Dakland police, and Frank Holcka, ivho was found with plans of the airplanes air-planes being manufactured by the Curtiss AeTomotor company of New lrork, and the Black Hawk Aero company com-pany of Davenport, Iowa. Investigation Investiga-tion showed that he had been employed em-ployed at both factories. Three enemy aliens from the southern south-ern Pacific coast were received at tho local war prison camp7 yesterday. Nearly thirty new ones havo been received re-ceived at the camp in the past week. SALT LAKE CITY. Feb. 12. That a cortaln woman, the wife of a German civilian Interned at the Fort Douglas camp, is under suspicion by the federal fed-eral authorities of being a spy and has been consistently shadowed for a considerable con-siderable time, was revealed today when the Rev. Henry Leesmann, pastor pas-tor of St. Paul's Evangelical church of Ogden, told his version of the circumstances cir-cumstances leading to his arrest at the war prison barracks Sunday night "Will they shoot me at once, do you think?" was the anxious inquiry of the minister today. "I assure you," he added, "I am only the innocent victim vic-tim of circumstances," According to the military authorities, authori-ties, Leesmann attempted to pass a message to one of the civilian prisoners. pris-oners. Leesmann admitted today that he had done so, but stated that he had read the note and thought it quite harmless. He stated that it had been handed to mm ny a woman, ionowmg his services at a church in this city Sunday, with the request that he deliver de-liver it to a prisoner named either von Dylcman or a similar cognomen. "The federal authorities had the woman under survolllance all the time," said Leesmann today. "I havo since learned that she was regarded as highly dangerous. "I was not aware of it at the time, but I was watched from the minute I received the nute until I attempted to deliver it at the fort I understood that the woman was a young bride recently re-cently married to the civilian prisoner. pris-oner. The man I actually handed the note to was in the employ of the federal fed-eral government. Of that I am certain. cer-tain. "He returned it to me and 1 placed it again in my pocket. I made no attempt at-tempt to deliver it to the man for whom it was intended. When I was arrested by soldiers the note was still in my possession. It read like this: 'Have you written to for money, or shall I write?'" Leesmann is being held here, but federal officials decline to state what charge will be preferred against him. They also refused to state whether the woman who wrote the note will be arrested. ar-rested. oo |