Black Tom

With thunderous roar upon roar a series of munitions blasts rocked lower New York City almost to its foundations, shattered thousands of windows, peppered Governor's Island and Jersey City with shrapnel fragments, killed four men, destroyed $45.000.000 worth of property on Jan. 30, 1916.

This was the famed "Black Tom Disaster." A year later came the "Kingsland Disaster." and both were attributed to "German agents." Last week at The Hague the German-American Mixed Claims Commission, set up in 1922 and consisting of a German Commissioner, a U. S. Commissioner and a U. S. umpire, rendered decision upon the U. S. Government's claim against the German Government for $40.000.000 compensation (TIME, Oct. 6). Ruled the Commission:

"In the Kingsland case we find upon the evidence that the fire was not caused by German agents. ... In the Black Tom case we are ... quite a long way from being convinced that the fire was caused by any German agents. We therefore decide both cases in favor of Germany."

Going further, the Commission declared that, contrary to general U. S. belief in 1916 and since, the German Embassy and Consulates "were averse to attacks on American property . . . [and opposed] such a policy, so far as they possibly knew it was being carried out" by the political section of the German General Staff, which did commit some sabotage, according to the Commission.

In Manhattan, private Detective Ervin J. Smith, vice president of the International Secret Service Association, recalled that he was hired to investigate the Black Tom blast immediately after it occurred. Said he last week: "The real story of the explosion is this: The watchmen employed to guard the millions of dollars' worth of War materials, sugar, salt, flour and explosives were bothered by New Jersey mosquitoes that infested the swampy land about Black Tom. They had built themselves a smudge fire to drive them off.

"A spark from this fire ignited some excelsior which had been left carelessly under a box car on a siding less than 100 feet from the watchmen's shanty. The freight car was loaded with small shells which exploded and set fire to other cars. Finally a car loaded with black powder in the very centre of the yard exploded and after that everything went up."

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