TREASON IS LAID TO 3 JAP WOMEN

WASHINGTON, May 9.--(AP)--Attorney-General Biddle said today an indictment charging three American-born sisters of Japanese ancestry with treason in aiding two German soldiers to escape from a prisoner-of-war camp at Trinidad, Colo., last October 16, was returned by a federal grand jury at Denver.

Named as defendants, Biddle reported, are Tsuruko Wallace, Florence Shivze Otani and Billie Shitara Tanigoshi, former residents of California, who were sent after Pearl Harbor to the Amache Relocation Center in Southern Colorado.

Gave Escapees Food

Biddle said the indictment, containing two counts, charged that the three women aided Heinrich Haider and Herman August Loescher to escape by furnishing them with food, clothing, money and highway maps and by transporting them to Wagon Mound, N.M.

The prisoners were captured October 19 at Watrous, N.M. Haider had in his possession some snapshots showing himself and his companion embracing three Japanese women--whom Thomas J. Morrisey, United States attorney at Denver, identified today as the women named in the indictment.

The Justice Department reported that the women met Haider on a farm near Trinidad, where they were permitted to work, in April, 1943.

The first count of the indictment, charging treason, carries a maximum penalty of death and a minimum penalty of a $10,000 fine or five years imprisonment.

The second, charging conspiracy to commit treason, carries a maximum penalty of $10,000 fine and two years imprisonment.

$10,000 Bail Suggested

Morrissey said the women were being taken into custody today at the Amache Center and probably would be arraigned in Denver May 12. The grand jury suggested their bonds be fixed at $10,000 each.