a retainer.
3) That his firm of Ivy Lee & T. J. Ross, of which he is senior partner, has been making suggestions to officials of the German dye trust on how to procure favorable reaction abroad.
4) That these suggestions along with advice on German rearmament, are forwarded to the Nazi government.
5) That Lee himself conferred with Hitler, Goebbels and von Papen during trips to Berlin early this year and last year. He modified this admission, however, with the claim that these meetings were confined to discussion of “how to improve German-American relations.”
6) That he privately had warned German officials against continuance of their policies of anti-Semitism on the ground that “America would always resent the treatment of Jews of Germany.”
LEE IN EUROPE
Lee, who is now in Europe, was given permission by the committee to go abroad on the understanding that he would return immediately after an address he was scheduled to make in London on July 3, unless the committee cabled him that he would not be required to testify.
Although the committee ordered the publicist’s office to cable him to return to New York by July 12 or 13, Lee has remained in Europe, and Carter and Dudley Pittenger, a bookkeeper for the firm, were called instead.
Carter testified yesterday that he advised the German government “that some high official should state in effect, ‘Germany does not want arms itself and is willing to destroy all her armament if other nations will do likewise. If not, there is no choice but for Germany to arm’.”
Although revelations of the Lee firm’s relations with the Nazi government were of outstanding importance at yesterday’s sessions, excitement was aroused to even higher pitch later in the day, when a witness accused Congressman Samuel Dickstein, vice-chairman of the committee, of having sought favors from the North German Lloyd Line.
The witness was Ernst Schmitz, head of the German Railways and the German Tourist Agency, who made the charge while he was being questioned by Congressman John W. McCormack (D., Mass.), chairman of the Committee.
After about an hour of severe grilling by McCormack and Dickstein, during which Schmitz was asked about propaganda efforts of the German Tourist Agency in this country and during which he discussed free trips given by German steamship lines to Burton Holmes, lecturer, and Karl K. Kitchen, writer, in return for favorable publicity for Germany, the witness threw the room into an uproar when he declared:
“I understand that the chairman of the House Immigration Committee sought similar favors from my line.”
Dickstein’s face reddened.
“What?” he demanded.
Schmitz repeated his assertion.
“We won’t mince words,” Dickstein said then. “I am the chairman of the House Immigration Committee, and when I went to Germany in 1932 you socked me exactly $538, and I want to tell you the service was rotten I have never sought favors from German or any other steamship lines.”
Schmitz replied, “I learned that you did from (John) Schroeder of the North German Lloyd Line.”
DICKSTEIN EXPLAINS
In response to accusations made by George Sylvester Viereck during the noon recess of Tuesday’s session stating that he considered the Jewish Daily Bulletin and the Philadelphia Record as having gained access to records of the private hearings of the committee, Congressman Dickstein said later in the day that the particular testimony to which he referred had been taken by a non-governmental reporter from Washington. Both he and Congressman McCormack assured the public that they would bring the matter to the attention of authorities and demand that the proper action be taken with regard to the reporter of the proceedings.
The last witness that day was Miss Bertha Ziegler, who claims to be the owner of the firm of F. X. Mittemeier at 229 East Eighty-sixth street. The concern imports from Germany and sells Nazi literature, most of which is of a scurrilous anti-Semitic nature. The concern is known as the “custodian of books and literature of the Friends of New Germany.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
