In 1937, Canaris created a new office of air intelligence in the "Abwehr" and assigned "Hauptmann" Nikolaus Ritter of the Luftwaffe to be the chief of I. Luft (Chief of Air Intelligence). Ritter, who had lived in the United States for 12 years, was given primary authority over "Abwehr" agents operating in the Americas and Great Britain. Canaris instructed Ritter to contact a former spymaster he knew from the First World War who was living in New York, Fritz Joubert Duquesne. Back in 1931, Ritter had met Duquesne in New York, and the two spies reconnected in New York on 3 December 1937. Ritter also met with Herman W. Lang, a spy who operated under the code name PAUL.