IN PACIFIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 76, 31 March 1941, Page 7

IN PACIFIC.

Presence Of German Warships Reported. AXIS SHIPS LEAVE BRAZIL. NEW YORK, Mar. 30. According to an agency message from Shanghai, authoritative quarters state that the German battle-cruiser Scharnhorst, or her sister ehip the Gneisenau, is at present in the Pacific, giving rise to fears of impending action on a large scale. One pocket-battleship remains in the Atlantic. It is also reported that the German merchant vessel Ramses, which had been anchored at Shanghai eince the outbreak of war, has suddenly departed. • A message from Rio de Janeiro states that three Axis merchant vessels left Brazilian ports on Friday night, in an apparently co-ordinated effort to penetrate the British blockade. The German freighter Dresden has not reported for 11 hours since she sailed from Santos, with a crew of 50. A British armed merchant cruiser left the port some time before her. The Italian oil-tanker Franco Martelli left Recife with a cargo of oil and a crew of 60, and the Italian freighter Frisco, with a crew of 30, also departed.

The United States Government has placed armed guards on all Italian vessels in port from the Panama Canal to Boston to prevent further damage by their Italian crews. This has followed the proposal to transfer enemy ships in United States ports to Britain.

The Scharnhomt and Gneisenau were recently stated by Mr. Churchill Ito have been operating in mid-Atlantic, I where, according to Berlin claims, they had sunk 22 ships..