Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 - 1954), Monday 6 April 1942, page 5


AMERICAN OIL.

BEEN USED BY SPIES. EVIDENCE AT INQUIRY.

* (Australian Associated Press.)

NEW YORK, April 4.

The Lati Airline, using American oil has carried Axis spies and propaganda to South America since the war began. This was revealed in evidence before the Senate De-fence Investigating Committee.

Witnesses stated that fuel supplied by the Standard Oil Co. was used by

the line.

Mr. Adolph Berle, Assistant Secre-tary for State, told the committee that the State Department had twice re-quested the Standard Oil Co. to cease supplying the fuel, but the request had

been refused.

Standard Oil Co., he said, had re-fused to cease selling aviation gasoline to German and Italian airlines in South America until the Standard Oil Co.'s Brazilian subsidiary was "black-listed" by the department.

In fairness to the Standard Oil Co., Mr. Berle continued, he should add that it had co-operated with the State Department ever since.

Previously the company had con-tended that it would be liable to a law suit if the oil supplies ceased.

Mr. Berle named the Lati and Con-dor as Axis airlines.

NO FAKES PAID.

William Lavarre, chief of the Amer-ican Republics Office in the United States Department of Commerce, sub-mitted a list of German and Italian

agents who travelled to and from South America and Europe on the Lat! airliners. He termed it as "the moat notorious record of enemies ever hav-ing travelled on the one line."

i He asserted that although the tare from Europe to South America was 2000 dollars (£A625), German corpor-ations using the Lari liners had passes, so nobody had to pay.

Moreover, most of the freight was listed as Government freight, so- very little money ever changed hands;

The United States, he said, had an official record of everything trans-ported on Lat! planes from December 30, 1940, to May 41, .1941, on 22 west-ward flights and 23 eastward flights. That record showed that westward cargo included propaganda books; films, and 'horror"'pictures to make Ld tin Americans so scared that they would not go to war.

There were also 15 Jrilos of German medals intended for Brazilians, includ-ing certain newspaper publishers. I .

MICA, PRECIOUS STONES.

"Most dangerous of all,"., continued Mr. Lavarre, "was the ea Abound freight, which included 3371 kilos of mica, without which the Germans could not even fight a war. Semi-precious stones were exported to Genr.sny, where they were cut by Belgians, and then returned to Brazil to obtain for-eign exchange."

Among Axis agents who travelled on Lari planes from Europe to South America, said Mr. Lavarre, were Ar-nulf Fuhrmann, the gauleiter (district leader) of South America, and a spec-ialist in anti-Semitic propaganda; Erich von Ribbentrop, a nephew of the Ger-man Foreign Minister; Julius Hölzer, a chief of the Nazi Storm Troops; Ru-dolf Meissner, a Gestapo chief, and Arthur Dietrich, a South American Nazi propagandist