THE END OF THE GRAF SPEE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 23, 27 January 1940, Page 14

THE END OF THE GRAF SPEE

Perusal of the foreign newspapers now arriving adds a few facts" to the many already published about the end of the. Graf Spec and her captain. I In the first place, it is clear that Captain Hans Langsdorff took the vessel to sea only after most strenuous efforts to evade the decision of the Uruguayan Government. There was a conference between the captain, the German Minister, and a Uruguayan admiral of German ancestry in the course of this struggle, and before lifting anchor the captain * filed a protest with the Government which may be described as a political document. In the course of this he spoke of nis "deep gratitude -lor the innumerable demonstrations of sympathy and chivalrous sentiment of the Uruguayan people towards my dead and wounded," and regretted the introduction of a jarring note; that is. the decision that the pocket-battleship must leave harbour by 8 p.m. on December 17. "notwithstanding that unpostponeable repairs necessary for establishment of seaworthiness cannot be effected by that time." Against this ruling he protested because warships were permitted, under The Hague Convention, to stay in port long enough to make repairs indispensable to their security. He also declared, rather mysteriously, that a technical commission appointed by the Government had become convinced that me combat potentiality of the ship had been reduced so little that there should be no fear that a stay of 15 days could be used to reinforce chis potentiality. The commission, however, apparently determined that 72 hours was long enough for the repair of damage. But despite intense efforts, it was not possible to carrj^out these repairs. Also, on December 16. the Customs prevented the men carrying out the repairs from boarding the ship for several hours. They finally came aboard only after the German Legation intervened in the matter. The ruling of the Council of Ministers' was described by Captain Langsdorff as "a flagrant violation of the aspirations to humanise warfare which led to the signing >f The Hague Con vention." and he hinted that it was the result of "pressure by some interested party."

After the captain committed suicide in the naval arsenal at Buenos Aires th. German Embassy issued a statement which read: "The commander of the glorious pocket-battleship Admiral Graf Spec sacrificed his own life last night for the sake^ of the Fatherland, eliminating himself voluntarily, as he himself said, in a letter addressed'to the German Ambassador, Edmund yon Thermann. From the first moment he made up his mind to share the fate of his magnificent ship. Overcoming his intimate desire, in consideration of the responsibility resting upon him to ensure safe debarkation' of a crew composed of more than 1000 young men, and, pending full knowledge of th regulations whict would affect these seamen, he postponed fulfilment of his design until he was better able to carry out that duty, and also the duty of informing .his superiors of the event. Having completed that mission last night, the fate of fee sailor was sealed, the sailor who wrote another glorious page in the book of the German navy."

Opinion oh the west of the Atlantic, however, was by no means that the Admiral Graf Spec. had written a "glorious page" in the history of the German navy. The encounter was recorded as a British victory, and the end of the Graf Spec was described by the "New York Times" as "defeatism," it being pointed out that even if the ship had been interned the Allies could never have been certain that she would not escape, while the statement that internment would result in the revelation of naval secrets was dismissed as stupid. It was pointed out. that the "secrets" of the ship were widely known and that the few really secret instruments such as the fire-control system and code books could easily be' destroyed.. The efforts of Dr. Goebbels to turn the affair into a German victory were described editorially as an attempt "to regain the laurels (recently lost to Russia because of the story that it had been attacked by Finland) of the extreme effort in useless lying."