The State Department at Washington has asked for the recall
of the German Naval Attache, Captain Boy-Ed, and the German Military Attaché, Captain von Papen. The reason given is not very precise. "Improper activities in military and naval matters" are mentioned, but the State Department bases its request substantially on the diplomatic phrase cus- tomary in such cases that the person whose recall is demanded Is a persona non grata. Apparently the American Government had been disposed to overlook Captain Boy-Ed's activities, but the evidence of his guilt in the trial of the Hamburg- Amerika directors was too much for them. Throe directors of the Hamburg-Amerika line, we may say here, have been con- demned to one and a half years' imprisonment, and one to one year, for filing false clearance papers for vessels which supplied German ships of war at sea. Captain von Papen's activities in Interfering with American munition industries are notorious. The German Government have refused to recall the Attaches unless the American grievance is formulated exactly. The German Ambassador, Count Bernstorff, says that German " honour " has been affronted. What puzzles us is that Count Bernstorff himself is allowed to remain. The German Embassy is a highly organized piece of machinery. It is absolutely certain that whatever the Attaches did was done with the Ambassador's consent.
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