On the military side, one of von Papen’s brilliant projects was to
organize the German reservists in the United States into an army for
the invasion of Canada. The plan was to transport men and guns by night
from ports of the Great Lakes by means of powerful motor boats and
attack defenseless lake cities, the object being to arouse such fear
in the Canadians that they would keep their troops for home defense
instead of sending them to the aid of England. This, however, was a
project from which the craftier Bernstorff recoiled as smacking too
much of open violence. Then von Papen proposed a scheme to blow up
the Welland Canal as a terrorizing job. The plot was ascribed to “two
Irishmen, prominent members of Irish associations, both of whom had
fought in the Irish rebellion.”
The spy, Horst von der Goltz, was the active agent in the preliminary
steps, such as recruiting men for the job, securing explosives, etc.,
Papen, in the name of Steffens, supplying the money and giving the
necessary instructions. But after being carried forward almost to
the point of action the Welland enterprise was, for some unknown
reason, suddenly abandoned and the dynamite (three hundred pounds in
suitcases), which had been taken to Niagara Falls, was left with an
aviator, and Goltz, with his immediate associate, Constance Covani, a
private detective, returned to New York. Von Papen was much provoked by
the failure of his second plan to terrorize Canada. Goltz was sent on
some commission to Germany in October, sailing on a forged passport,
got safely to Berlin and, on his return trip in November, was arrested
in England, spy fashion. After a protracted imprisonment, Goltz agreed
to turn State’s evidence against his fellow conspirators. A number of
arrests resulted, and the plots against Canada were fully revealed.
As more and more precise rules for the issue of passports were made by
the government the difficulties of the conspirators in making direct
communication with Berlin increased correspondingly. It devolved upon
von Papen to provide for the supply of passports to meet the needs of
couriers and others who could not get passports in their own names.
“The military attaché selected Lieutenant Hans von Wedell, who had
already made a trip as courier to Berlin for his friend, Count von
Bernstorff. Von Wedell was married to a German baroness. He had been
a newspaper reporter in New York, and later a lawyer. He opened an
office in Bridge Street, New York, and began to send out emissaries to
sailors on interned German liners, and to their friends in Hoboken,
directing them to apply for passports. He sent others to the haunts of
tramps on the lower East Side, to the Mills Hotel, and other gathering
places of the down-and-outs, offering ten, fifteen or twenty dollars to
men who would apply for and deliver passports. And he bought them! He
spent much time at the Deutscher Verein, and at the Elks’ Club in 43rd
Street where he often met his agents to give instructions and receive
passports. His bills were paid by Captain von Papen.”