IN GERMAN PORTS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 156, 30 December 1918, Page 8

IN GERMAN PORTS

WHAT THE NAVAL MISSION SAW

PAUTr RESPECTFULLY RECEIVED

(AWSTEAI.LW-NBW ZE*.LANI> CiX'.S ASSOCIATION.)

(Received December 30, 1 p.m.)

! . LONDON, 27th December. | Admira! Browning's Naval Mission found tbs.t the Gorrnans had employed most of the interned. British merchantmen upon war duties, and the vessels wiil Tsnuire much alteration before they &re agaJ.n. fit for their original purposes. j Hamburg is a dead port. The Mission inGptv;tsd' the Cyolop ; ■ a submarine cruiser ea.pa.ble of lifting five hundred tons, ami also the Moewe, which has now reverted to merchant uses. The <iestroyer which captured Captain Fryatt's 'steamer Brussels carried two buoys taken from tfo> Brussels as souvenirs. Tho conditions at Kiel are deplorable, and discipline is non-existent. The Missicra in one case refused to proceed with the inspection until tho crew . left. the ! 3-l'i!)- ' . ' , Admiral Browning refused to deal with th« Workmen's aud Soldiers' Council, though obviously they had complete [ control of the situation. The German I Commission at, Kiel included Steinbrinck, a submarine commander, who i claims to have sunk 200,000 tons of British shipping. The Mission was treated everywhere with marked 'respect by the officials, and the. Workmen's and Soldiers' Councils, who smoothed the way everywhere. Naval officers acted with .dignity, but their sense of humiliation was only too apparent. The men, however, were unashamed. The Mission closely examined all the surface and submarine warships, naval aircraft, and merchantmen.