Annie Larsen affair

The Annie Larsen affair was a gun-running plot in the United States during World War I. The plot, involving India's Ghadar Party, the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the German Foreign office, was a part of the larger Hindu–German Conspiracy, and it was the prime offence cited in the 1917 Hindu–German Conspiracy Trial, described at the time as the longest and most expensive trial in American legal history.

By 1914, plans for a pan-Indian revolution had been hatched. As World War I broke out, Germany decided to actively support the Ghadar plan. For this, the links established between Indian and Irish residents in Germany (including Roger Casement) and the German Foreign office were used to tap into the Indo-Irish network in the United States. In September 1914, the German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg authorised German activity against India. The German effort was headed by Max von Oppenheim, archaeologist and the head of the newly formed Intelligence bureau for the east. Upon Oppenheim fell the task of arranging the Indian student groups into a cohesive group. Oppenheim also convinced Har Dayal of the feasibility of the project and was able to establish contact with the Ghadar party in the United States. In an October meeting of the Imperial Naval Office, the consulate in San Francisco was tasked to make contact with Ghadar leaders in California. A young naval lieutenant named Wilhelm von Brincken was able to establish contact, through Tarak Nath Das and an intermediary named Charles Lattendorf, with Ram Chandra.

With the approval of San Francisco German vice-consul E.H. von Schack, arrangements for funds and armaments were secured. Ram Chandra was to receive a monthly payment of $1,000. At the same time $200,000 worth of small arms and ammunition was acquired by the German military attaché Captain Franz von Papen through a Krupp agent by the name of Hans Tauscher. In the meantime, Papen arranged for Joseph McGarrity to make the necessary arrangements for shipping the arms purchase from New York to Galveston via the Mallory Steamship Company, an Irish-American shipping firm. From Galveston the guns were sent by train to San Diego, where they were to be shipped to India via Burma. However, Charles Martinez, a customs official who had arranged the shipment to San Diego, was not told of the true destination, and hired the schooner Annie Larsen. For this purpose, an elaborate deception was hatched to convey the idea that the arms were meant for the warring factions in Mexico. J. Clyde Hizar, a Colorado attorney in charge of placing the arms on board the Annie Larsen, posed as a representative for the Carranza Faction. This ruse was convincing enough to elicit an offer of $15,000 from the rival Villa faction to divert the shipment to a Villa-controlled port.

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Wikipedia