Considerably chastened after having spent the night as guest of the government in the West Street Federal House of Detention, Engelborg Roell, secretary of the League of Friends of New Germany, Wednesday expressed the desire to cooperate hereafter with federal authorities in their efforts to reveal the nature of Nazi operations in this country.
Meekly, in contrast to the arrogant front he displayed during the Tuesday hearings in open court, Roell Wednesday appeared before Federal Judge Harry B. Anderson, and offered his services and testimony at hearings. On Tuesday, Judge Anderson had ordered Roell’s detention for twenty-four hours when the latter refused to comply with the court’s demand for a list of eighty members of the League of Friends of New Germany. His action Wednesday forestalled a threatened penalty for contempt of court.
John Holley Clark, Jr., Roell’s counsel, protested to the court against ill treatment allegedly received by the German during his night’s residence in the house of detention.
“You mean the jailors mishandled Mr. Roell?” the judge asked.
“No,” the counsel replied, “it was the prisoners. They kicked and beat my client.”
“Well, prisoners will be prisoners”, commented the judge.
Roell, as far as the casual eye of observers could detect Wednesday, bore no outward signs of having been mistreated.
When Roell’s counsel declared the intention of taking legal action against the beating his client had allegedly received, Judge Anderson advised that he be given a physical examination at once to ascertain the extent of damage incurred.
Roell promised to bring to court, on its convention next Tuesday, the membership list of the Friends of New Germany as ordered by the court. He also consented to give honest testimony to the activities of his organization before the grand jury.
Roell was brought before Judge Anderson on Tuesday in an open court session after he had defied the authority of the federal grand jury to force him to testify regarding the operations of the League of Friends of New Germany. In presenting the case, William W. Prager, assistant United States attorney, explained before the court that Roell’s answers to questions had been evasive and that he had refused stubbornly to give direct responses to his own and the queries of the grand jury.
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