Major-General George Van Horn Moseley, retired, who has been linked by Dies Committee testimony with an anti-Semitic plot, was questioned by the committee today about his connections with Reserve Captain James Campbell, anti-Semitic propagandist, Fritz Kuhn, leader of the German-American Bund, and other anti-Semites.
Most of the examination was conducted by Representative Arthur D. Healey (Dem.,Mass.), presiding in the absence of Chairman Martin Dies (Dem., Tex.) in Texas for a rest. General Moseley was accompanied by counsel. The retired army officer said he met Campbell four to five years ago. After he had retired, Moseley testified, he was called upon by Campbell, who said he had highly important reports from a New York group which he thought Moseley would find interesting. Some of the testimony follows:
Q. “Did you know Campbell was disseminating anti-Jewish propaganda?” A. “No.”
Q. “Didn’t Campbell show you the reports about an alleged Jewish plot to overthrow the Government?” A. “Yes, he mailed them to me but said he did not know what credence to put in them.”
Q. “What was your impression of these reports?” A. “At first I thought there was not much in them. But some of the information checked with information I received elsewhere. Once or twice I wrote to General Craig, Chief of Staff of the Army, telling him what I learned.”
Q. “Did Craig take the information seriously?” A. “I think so. The Information Division of the War Department was also impressed.”
Q. “Did you ever meet Fritz Kuhn?” A. “Yes, he called on me in New York six months ago.”
Q. “You went up to a private home on Long Island to meet Kuhn?” A. “Yes, but I did not know Kuhn was to be present. There were a number of other guests representing patriotic organizations. At one meeting 70 patriotic organizations were represented. The hostess was Mrs. Rudyard Uzzell.”
Q. “Did you know that Mrs. Uzzell is affiliated with anti-Jewish organizations?” A. “I did not”
Committee Counsel Rhea Whitely read a letter from Moseley to Captain Campbell, Moseley saying therein he was going out to the Long Island meeting “at which a number of important members are to be assembled.”
“That is not consistent with the statement that you expected to meet only Mrs. Uzzell, is it?” asked Whitley. Moseley said he “entirely forget the other persons were to be present.”
Whitley read another letter of Moseley to Campbell saying that Moseley would go to the New Yorker Hotel and register under the name “A.B. Parker,” then go the next day to the Hotel Pennsylvania before going to Mrs. Uzzell’s. “This indicates great secrecy about this meeting, doesn’t it, in contradiction to your previous statement that the meeting was not secret,” asked Whitley. Moseley said he did not carry out the plan. Another guest of Mrs. Uzzell’s was Mrs. Gort, of Philadelphia, representing the National Defense Committee of Patriotic Organizations of Philadelphia.
Moseley admitted addressing Mrs. Uzzell’s meeting. He said the purpose of the meeting was “purely patriotic. Those present wanted to see this Government go on as in the past.”
He admitted sending out James True’s anti-Semitic propaganda to James M. Wilkerson of Kansas City.
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