CO129-452 - Others & Individuals - 1918 — Page 15

MEMORANDUM

PFISTER. (Karl Johannes),

Wohlen, Cant

Aergan.

(Importer and dealer in materiale

for the Straw and Textile

Industry.)

SUMMARY.

(1) Karl Johannes Pfister, importer and dealer in materials for the straw and textile industry, Wohlen, Canton Aargan, Switzerland, is acting in Switzerland on behalf of Rich.0. Pottstook, Bremen, in whose Wohlen house he was managing alerk till he took it over in January 1916.

(2) He is in close connexion with the firm of Germann & Co., Hamburg (branch at Manila) who have placed orders for hemp on his behalf. It is possible that the hemp when imported was for use in Switzerland but any such import transaction would appear to be partly for the benefit of Germann & Co., Hamburg, as agents, if not of Rich. C. Pottstock, Bremen.

(3) The hemp was shipped through Herman Dubler,

an agent at New York of Pottstock & Co., Bremen, and of Germann & Co., Hamburg, thence to Cesar Dubler, Barcelona, in whose name the drafta were made out and thenge to Genoa. As Pfister was unable to obtain the goods when they arrived at Genoa he made a dishonest proposal to another of Germann & Co's connexions, viz. F. & E. Gilli, Florence, to take over the goods from storage and to apply in their own name for permit to export on the fraudulent pretence that the goods were not required by them.

(4) Pfister has been approached by Dubler N.Y. in

very considerable transactions in malt (1500 tona), and in the export to the U.S.A. of chemicals, which are suspected of being possibly of enemy origin.

Niether of these operations would appear to be within the legitimate scope of the business of "importer and dealer in raw materials for the straw and textile industry" and the fact that they were suggested by Dubler lends colour to the reports referred to in the next succeeding paragraphs.

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