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It was then observed that noted German Fascist Colonel Bauer, sometime aide to ultra-Fascist General Ludendorff, was frequently in the company of Prince Windisch-Graetz. Colonel Bauer was suspected of having brought certain packages to the Prince from Germany. It was thought that counterfeit printer's plates, supposed to have been engraved in Germany during the War for the purpose of flooding France with counterfeit notes, had at length found their way into Hungary via the mysterious packages of Colonel Bauer. This line of investigation was pursued into such high places that General Ludendorff himself felt obliged to issue a statement last week: "During the War the Imperial General Staff several times gave its attention to suggestions that we should flood enemy countries with forged currencies. This might have disorganized our enemies' fiscal machinery; but we refused to consider taking such a step."
Since the German trail did not appear immediately promising, renewed attempts were made in the Netherlands to apprehend more important counterfeit -note -passers than the housemaid of Mynheer Severin.
At length three Hungarians were caught red-handed in Holland: Colonel von Jankovitch, Captain Marsowsky and one George Mankowitz. In their possession was a trunk with a false bottom stuffed with counterfeit 1,000-franc notes. The trunk still bore official Hungarian Government seals, which had exempted it from inspection by customs officers. The three men possessed shoes with double soles in which they carried the notes which they desired to transfer to subordinates, who passed them at hotels and in shops.
Allegedly the men arrested in Holland furnished the French detectives with information which enabled them to dovetail together numerous doubtful clues which they had turned up at Budapest. This mass of evidence was officially conveyed to the Hungarian Government by the Government of France —with the demand that action be taken.
Premier Count Bethlen of Hungary was rumored to have professed himself so staggered at the number of alleged friends of his political enemy, Regent Horthy, who were involved, that he went to the Regent and offered to resign rather than proceed to prosecute the offenders. Regent Horthy allegedly professed himself astounded that anyone should have supposed the men implicated were his friends, and gave Premier Count Bethlen explicitly to understand that the guilty whoever they were, must be punished.
The Jailed. 1) Prince Windisch-Graetz. Following his arrest, the Princess Windisch-Graetz left him "still undismayed" in "the most comfortable cell which could be placed at his disposal." Questioned by the authorities, he broke down, wept, admitted that he had employed M. Gerce, Chief of the Cartographical Institute of Budapest, to superintend the actual counterfeiting, which was done on Government presses used normally to print Hungarian paper currency. The Prince issued a statement: "It was to avenge my country upon France that I erred. . . . I wished to send the franc crashing to nothingness on a tide of counterfeit inflation. . . . I invested my last Hungarian krone in this patriotic enterprise. . . . Now I am deserted and without money of any sort. . . ."