GERMANY’S WAR AT SEA

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 100, 22 January 1940, Page 7

GERMANY’S WAR AT SEA

Seven More Neutral Ships Destroyed (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, January 20. During the last seven days casualties to seven neutral ships have been announced 1 as a result of Germany’s sea war, which is dearly directed as much against neutral as against Allied shipping. Two Italian steamers, the Traviata and the Pozzuoli (5345 tons), were mined as a result of Germany’s illegal mine-laying campaign. Two other neutral ships, the Belgian Josephine Charlotte (3422 tons) and the Greek Asteria (3313 tons), have been sunk by German mines. Germany, however, has not relied upon indiscriminate minelaying to sink or damage neutral ships. German submarines have attacked neutral ships both by gunfire and by torpedoes and, as a result, one Dutch and two Norwegian ships have been sunk in the last seven days. They are the Dutch Arendskerk (7906 tons) and the Norwegian Enid (11,140 tons) and the Fagerheim (1590 tons). Orders Must Be Obeyed. The Arendskerk was sunk after the ship had 'been examined by the officers of a German submarine and the captain of the U-boat is reported to have said he was reluctant to sink the ship but “it is war and orders must be obeyed blindly.” The German plea that the ship was carrying contraband and therefore had to 'be sunk has no basis in international law. Moreover, it has been exploded by the Dutch statement that she was outward bound and was carrying no contraband.

The Dutch newspaper “Telegraaf” comments: “The sinking of this ship is one of those senseless acts of war which brings no fame to the German navy. We consider the Nazi aim to isolate England has failed. Germany will never succeed in stopping the English or the Dutch from sailing the seas.”

The sinking of the Arendskerk is almost on a par with the sinking of the Dutch ship Sliedrecht (5133 tons) several weeks ago—a sinking which Germany tried to justify by the dissemination of an imaginative story of a British submarine trap sailing the Atlantic under Dutch colours. Left To Feud For Themselves. The Norwegian steamer Enid was attacked by gunfire by a German Üboat on Wednesday afternoon. The U-boat fired between 15 and 20 shells into the Norwegian ship and set her on fire. No attempt was made by the U-boat to make provision for the safety of the crew of this neutral ship. The men were left to fend for themselves in open boatsi in bitterly cold weather a considerable distance from land.

Nor did the U-boat which torpedoed the Norwegian steamer Fagerheim make any attempt to provide for the safety of the neutral lives on board. Fourteen of the crew of this ship are still missing and the five survivors who were picked up in an exhausted condition by a Greek steamer have been landed in Spain. Among these survivors was the captain of the Fagerheim who had both legs broken.

As if to emphasize her intention to wage ruthless warfare against neutral shipping. Germany issued a news bulletin in Tokio two days ago boasting that two Danish steamers, the Feddy

and the Ivan Kondrup, had been engaged by the German- air force in the North Ser. and “annihilated.” Actually, these two ships were attacked by German aircraft in defiance of international law, but both of them were afterward brought into harbour.