Jump to content

Page:Mexico's dilemma.djvu/119

From Wikisource
This page has been validated.
THE LAST SPY OFFENSIVE
99

Before the United States Congress declared war against the Berlin Imperialists, Señor and Herr Carl Heynen was one of the active German agents in the United States and Mexico. So important was he considered by the United States Government, whose detectives found him in the United States when war was declared, that he was placed in an internment camp, where he lives to-day in peace and quiet. Herr Eversbusch, the other member of the concern, being the German Consul at Tampico, always remained in that city, to direct the financial transactions of the institution and protect Germany's interests.

Before America was a belligerent the Agenda Comercial y Maritima communicated in code with banks and individuals in the United States. When a censorship was established these messages were stopped; but the pause was only temporary. The State Department announced one day that those concerns having business of a confidential nature in the United States and Mexico might, by filing a copy of the code with the United States censors, continued to communicate as in the pre-war days.

At the time this pronouncement was made the American Consul, Mr. Claude I. Dawson, was in Washington, and a young vice consul was acting in his stead. One day a representative of Herr Eversbusch appeared at the Consulate with a code of this bank and the statement that, inasmuch as the bank did business with American concerns in Houston, Texas, and in New York City, it was