THE SCAPA CRIME

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 137, 8 December 1919, Page 7

THE SCAPA CRIME

GERMAN RESPONSIBILITY

A "MOST SECRET" LETTER,

(REUTBR'S TELEGRAM.)

LONDON. 3rd December.

An Admiralty communique, referring to Germany's contention that Admiral yon Reuter scuttled the German fleet at Scapa Flow without the knowledge of any German civil or military authority, publishes a translation of a letter found in the safe of the flagship Emden. Tlie locument, which was dated 9th May and marked "most secret," was written by \.dmiral yon Trotsa, Chief of the Gernan Admiralty, to Yon Reuter. It dis■usses the probable intentions of he Allies in regard to the fate of the nterned fleet, which, it is ' declared, iowever, cannot be decided without .erman co-operation, consummated by Germany. The letter emphasised that iurrender to the enemy was out of the inestion.

The Admiralty cites the foregoing and other instances in refutation of the-Ger-man allegation that German orders failed to reach Yon Reuter, and shows that the last orders, reached him on f 17th June, the very day on which, according to the text f another document, he instructed the :ommanding officers giving carefully details of the preparations to effect a rapid -inking in the event of forcible British intervention without German assent, or on his orders, concerning which he indicated a secret code. Yon Reuter idded: : "Should the German Governnent agree to surrender under the peace .erms, then the ships must be handed oyer, to the lasting disgrace of those who placed us in this position."