"Dodo's" Price

ARMY & NAVY

Last month onetime Lieut. Commander John Semer ("Dodo") Farnsworth, dishonorably discharged from the U. S. Navy in 1927, was arrested by the Department of Justice, accused of betraying Navy secrets to Japan (TIME, July 27). The District of Columbia's Grand Jury shortly indicted this jittery alcoholic on the charge that he sold to the Japanese a confidential Naval document entitled The Service of Information and Security. Last week the Grand Jury indicted Farnsworth on the more serious charge of conspiracy. Named were two of Farnsworth's clients: Commander Yosiyuki Itimiya, assistant Naval attache at the Japanese Embassy from October 1932 to December 1934, and Lieut. Commander Arika Yamaki, who served in the same capacity in Washington until last November.

Both these agents were reported safely out of the country last week. Unnamed, due to the Department of State's tact and powers of persuasion, was Farnsworth's third client, Commander Bunjiro Yamaguchi, also of the Japanese Embassy staff in Washington. Said Tokyo: "Although our hands are clean, stories published in America are admittedly embarrassing."

Embarrassing disclosures made in the second indictment were largely attributable to Fulton Lewis Jr., crack Hearst correspondent in Washington. Some months ago "Dodo" Farnsworth approached Newshawk Lewis, bluntly proposed to write for the Hearst papers a series of articles entitled: "How I was a Spy in the American Navy for the Japanese Government." Price: $20,000. Condition: that he be given 72 hours head start to catch the Hindenburg for Germany. Newshawk Lewis promptly notified Chief William D. Puleston of Naval Intelligence. Next he demanded proof of "Dodo's" relations with the Japanese. Farnsworth called up Commander Yamaguchi in Lewis' presence, told him he needed money at once. A meeting place was arranged, and Farnsworth tried to persuade Lewis to masquerade as a cabdriver, accompany him. Lewis refused, but so anxious was Farnsworth to prove his authenticity that he took Lewis to the office where he had The Service of Information and Security photostated, had his story corroborated. For three years, '"Dodo" told Lewis, he had worked for the Embassy at $100 a week and all expenses, had received $23,000 since 1932.

Farnsworth's methods appeared to be shrewd yet simple. One of the most brilliant men ever to graduate from the U. S. Naval Academy, and with enough social grace to make him acceptable in the best Washington society, "Dodo" picked up small bits of Navy information from Navy wives, pieced them together. Once, feigning drunkenness and pretending that he was a Commander, he boarded a destroyer at Annapolis, tricked an ensign into giving him maneuver data, rushed back to the Japanese Embassy, had them photostated, returned them the next day.

All went smoothly up to last November when Commander Yamaguchi supplanted Commander Yamaki at the Embassy, coldheartedly resolved to pay Farnsworth on a piecework basis. This sudden drop in income forced the liquor-sodden Farnsworth to go to Newshawk Lewis. It was not long before "Dodo" was in jail.

Last week the Navy Department prepared a warm reception for the Imperial Japanese Training Squadron which arrives this week in Baltimore. Scheduled to address the Son of Heaven's seamen are William H. Standley, Secretary of State Hull, Secretary of the Navy Swanson.

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