A CANARD EXPLODED.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 208, 2 September 1919, Page 6

A CANARD EXPLODED.

SYDNEY'S COMMODORE AND AN EMDEN STORY. NO MUNCHAUSEN GRABS. One of the most blood-curdling stories provoked by the war i 3 the much-re-peated and luridly elaborated tale of the attack by gigantic land crabs on the survivors of the Emden, w-hen the raider was forced in a sinking condition on to the beach of the Cocos Islands. Tlie hair-raising fiction is fully and finally dissipated by the version given to an " Auckland Star" representative today by Commodore J. C. T. Glossop, C.8., then in command of H3I.A.S. Sydney, who was a passenger by the Niagara to Auckland.

He assured the Pressman that the colouring had been laid on the picture with a large brush, and in the most vivid tints. It was true that land crabs did figure in the incident, but they were just the ordinary average, scavenging gentry that haunt the shores of the Pacific Islands. He emphatically denied the suggestion that gigantic crustaceans performed Munchausen feats amongst the living wounded. What happened was that some bodies were cast ashore, and these, as is always the case in these latitudes, were attacked by the voracious scavengers, which certainly performed their task with customary thoroughness.

Speaking of the Emden, Commodore Glossop, who is now in command of H.MA. Naval Establishment in Sydney, said that when she struck on the beach she broke her back, and since then, apparently, had been rapidly disentegrating. So thoroughly had the waves done their work that practically all that remained now was her rusty boilers.