SUBMARINES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 64, 17 March 1930, Page 7

SUBMARINES.

U-BOATS IN WAR TIME. German Naval Captain Awakens Memories. UPHOLDS LUSITANIA CRIME. (United P.A.-Electric Telegraph-Copyright) LONDON, March 16. Captain Gustave Luppe, a retired German naval captain, who is now associated with the German cinema industry, has succeeded in reawakening war memories in a good many quarters, by striking articles on the U-boats in the "Daily Express." Captain Luppe, who is undoubtedly a perfervid patriot, tells how a German submarine travelled to America in war time. The commander, dressed in the naval uniform, went ashore.and left his card with the port authorities. When he returned he resumed his working clothes. The submarine reached Germany safely, after having covered well over 7000"miles without refuelling or reprovisioning. That, writes Captain Luppe, was a great advertisement. It was intended as such. But the thing which has aroused the ire of legions of correspondents is his opinion regarding the sinking of the Lusitania. Captain Luppe says he believes the sinking will remain for centuries an historic event. He tells of the reception given to the commander of U-boat 20, Captain Schwieger, when he was back in Germany a few days afterwards. "Shame," said Admiral Ton Muller, chief of the Naval Cabinet. "I have nothing but contempt for you." Yet shortly afterwards opinion changed, and he was decorated with the Order of Merit and became a national hero. Captain Luppe says he knows the heated feelings in England regarding the Lusitania, but there are heated feelings in Germany about acts of the Allies. "As a German Imperialist I see no reason," he says, "why the Lusitania should not have been torpedoed. She was a British armed cruiser carrying ammunition and naval men. In fact she was a warship. If innocent people were sacrificed one must simply deplore the fact that they were allowed to be on board."