FRUITLESS ATTACK BY THREE U-BOATS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 9, 11 January 1940, Page 7

FRUITLESS ATTACK BY THREE U-BOATS.

PASSENGER LINER.

One Sub. Sunk By Convoy;

Others Fail.

NAZI BASE NEAR CANARIES?

United Press Association.—Copyright.

(Received 11 a.m.)

LONDON, January 10. reported from Rio de Janeiro that the newspaper "A Noite" reports that passengers on the British liner Avilas Star (14,443 tons), of the Blue Star Line, claim that they were attacked by three submarines near the Canary Islands, in the vicinity of the scene of the unsuccessful U-boat attack on the other British liner Highland Patriot last week-end. Escorting ships in the convoy sank one submarine. It •is believed tha£, there is a secret German base near the Canaries. Authoritative circles in London regard the latest figures of convoyed ships as evidence that the German attack on merchant shipping is being well Jcept in hand, says a British official wireless message. Sinkings by U-boats, wliich approached an average of 50,000 tons weekly for the first two weeks of the war totalled, for the last 12 weeks, less than one-fifth of that. It is felt that these figures show that the enemy's submarine campaign is increasingly ineffectual. The British steamer Rothesay Castle (7010 tons) ran on to rocks on the west coast of Scotland. Serious damage resulted. It is reported from New York that 400 of the crew of the German liner Columbus (32,505 tons), scuttled late last month, who are of military age, will be sent to the West Coast, from which they will leave for Germany, via Russia, by Japanese ships. Those over age will take neutral ships from New York.