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However, he continued to exercise an influence behind the scenes. He made two trips to
Albany to attend board meetings at which he sought to state his case for being reinstated, but
this was out of the question: the company's image was tarnished enough already. Back in
Wheeling, he refused to remove his effects from his office. During the Christmas vacation he
wrote asking for information on products from the Sterling secret laboratory. Even as late as
February 1942 he still had done nothing to clean out his office. He suggested to his successor,
James Hill, that he should have a separate entrance built and his office could be kept in the
building. Hill explained that this would not be acceptable to Treasury. Hill warned Weiss that
Morgenthau might treat him as harshly as he was treating some of the board of General
Aniline and Film. On February 23, Hill returned again and Weiss was still installed. Hill
screamed at Weiss that for the company's own good he must leave at once. On March 10, Hill
made a fourth trip to Wheeling and nothing had been done. Weiss had taken off to Arizona on
a vacation, leaving his office intact. Hill shouted at Weiss's secretary, who refused to move her
boss's belongings. Hill thereupon ordered the plant superintendent to remove the secretary
and the remainder of Weis 's effects from the premises in twenty-four hours. His instructions
were carried out.
When Weiss returned, he was devastated to see what had happened. Completely blackballed,
he became a kind of ghost, walking or driving meaninglessly around Wheeling for eighteen
months. In March 1943 he drove his car head on into another and was killed instantly.
The new management of Sterling was almost as unsatisfactory, except for James Hill. Earl
McClintock, who had so coolly fed his own colleague to the wolves, stayed on. Meanwhile,
some three weeks after Weiss's resignation, on December 31, U.S. Military Intelligence had
intercepted a cable from the Sterling headquarters to Mexico City and Venezuela stating under
the heading Top Secret, "In order that shipments ... be afforded greater security, it is
requested that you designate different consignees which are perfectly neutral, and to whom we
will ship the goods in lots of 40 or 50 cases after repacking in neutral packing cases following a
period of storage in a warehouse. It is possible for us to obtain consignments in the Western
coast ports to avoid having U.S. espionage be able to ask in pursuing the matter the
transportation route of the consignment."
The cable was examined in Washington, but the consignments were not discontinued. On
February 4, 1942, J. Edgar Hoover sent a private memorandum to Under Secretary of State
Adolf Berle with a report on the Sterling operation in Chile. He revealed that Werner Siering of
the local operation was head of the espionage service in that country. Hoover wrote, "Not only
does this group keep careful files on the principal opponents of Nazism, but checks on each
German citizen to test his loyalty to Hitler. This organization has agents in all American-
controlled copper mines, the American and British-controlled night raid works, as well as in
large chemical and financial houses. Through these agents they keep check on all important
economic developments." The report continues at great length to disclose that Siering and his
corporation had aided German crewmen of the scuttled German battleship Admiral Graf Spee
to escape from prison and go by Japanese ship to Japan.
Siering also worked with local Nazi officials to collect information on the political and economic
situation, the activities of Chile's leaders, the production of minerals in Chile and Bolivia,
general conditions in industry and commerce, maritime and military movement.
In April 1942, Morgenthau's staff investigated Sterling's headquarters in Manhattan. The
investigative team found that a man who for sixteen years had worked for I.G. Farben was still
employed as an executive. The team found that an attorney who had been executive vice-
president of General Aniline and Film had continued to represent Sterling on its legal staff until
February.
On May 28, 1942, the Lima, Peru, manager of Sterling wrote to his Buenos Aires office stating
that the Peruvian government was suspicious of Sterling's operations and wanted to control its
business dealings. The letter stated that no such control would be permitted. No interference
with Sterling's dealings with Proclaimed List nationals would be tolerated.
On August 27, 1942 Phillip W. Thayer, senior economic assistant of the American Embassy at
Santiago, Chile, wrote to Mario Justiniano, manager of the Sterling laboratories in that city,
urging Sterling to collect "the sum of 500,827 pesos, the equivalent of $14,861.81 which is
owed you by Quimica Bayer, of Santiago, a branch of I.G. Farben." Thus, an official of the U.S.
government authorized a branch of a New York company to collect money from a Nazi
corporation in time of war. The note continues with the words: "It would also be very much
appreciated if you will inform us as to the steps which are now being taken by your firm in the
United States to obtain the necessary commission and the license to effect this cooperation."
On August 30, 1942, Justiniano wrote to the Securities and Exchange Control Commission in
Washington to seek the license. He informed the SECC that there would be a problem in
getting the money. He would have to obtain it through the German-owned Banco Aleman
Transatlantico in Buenos Aires. He wanted to avoid this transference because of the
unfavorable attention that a disclosure of it might cause. He advised SECC that his lawyer had
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