Harvard Red Caught on Karlsruhe; Anti-Nazi Exploit Baffles
Officials
Allen K. Philbrick, 2o of Winnetka, Ill., a Harvard junior, was taken into
custody by police late last night having been discovered stuffing anti-Nazi
propaganda down a ventilator of the German cadet cruiser Karlsruhe at the navy
yard yesterday afternoon.
For several hours he steadfastly refused to reveal his identity, finally giving
his correct name and address to police just before midnight. Previously he had
given several fictitious names and addresses.
His apprehension raised a question in international entanglements which United
States Marshal John J. Murphy, naval officials, Baron Kurt von Tippelskirch,
the German consul, officers of the Karlsruhe, and police had been unable to
answer early this morning. They could not find a charge to place against the
prisoner.
Several telephone calls to government officials in Washington were made by
Murphy, but apparently the marshal's superiors there were as baffled as the
marshal himself was in Boston.
A temporary way out was finally found when it was decided to hold Philbrick
overnight on "suspicion of anarchy." He was taken to the city prison
early this morning. Federal officials promised a decision today as to his future
status.
Philbrick, known at Harvard as one of the college's leading radicals, is the
son of Allen E. Philbrick, a professor at the Chicago Art Institute. The younger
Philbrick is secretary of the Harvard chapter of the National Students' League,
and was one of the leaders in arranging the recent peace meeting in the college
yard which caused a near riot when a large "pro-war" delegation appeared
and disrupted the scheduled affair.
He is a member of the Harvard Liberal club, and rooms in Adams house at the
college. In checking at his room to make sure that the student name he finally
gave was correct, police found a large collection of Marxian literature.
Officers of the Karlsruhe caught him aboard the boat and turned him over to
navy yard officials. An escort of marines subsequently took him to the yard
gate, where he was turned over to Inspectors William Goldston and Benjamin Goodman
of the police "red" squad.
His presence on the cruiser was first suspected when a cadet found a mimeographed
flier on board and handed it to his superior officer.
The leaflet read:
Attention German sailors! Let not Hitler lie to you. His promises have been
broken daily. Your salvation lies, German sailors, in communism. The heroic
K. P. D. has joined and will fight for United Soviet Germany.
The watch was ordered to keep a sharp eye on visitors. Finally, Lt. Schmidt,
an officer of the watch, spied the man putting papers into the ventilator. He
asked him to accompany him to the gangway, where he was placed under arrest
by Marine Sergt. Lufkin.
He was questioned in the office of the yard by Capt. Harold E. Cook, Lt. H.
L. DeRivera and Lt. C. M. Reynolds. Realizing the seriousness of the offense,
which was without precedent in this basin, they called the German consul and
Murphy.
The conference lasted nearly four hours. Murphy was advised by U. S. Atty.
Francis J. W. Ford that the federal government had no jurisdiction over the
deck of a German ship which was here as a guest of the U. S. navy and the city
of Boston. | 
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