Graf Spee Postscript

Franklin Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 25, 4 March 1940, Page 3

Graf Spee Postscript

MUSTARD GAS ALLEGATIONS CLAIMS RIDICULED There liuve been several foolnoles to the River Plate Battle published at different times, but the affair goes on and on. The latest development is interesting-. It will be remembered that after the pocket-battleship ducked into the shelter of a neutral port the Germans said that tlie British guns Lad tired mustard gas shells and that some of them had ruined the food supply. The suggestion was denied in Britain. but the Nazis persisted. They even produced an Uruguayan doctor to say that lie had seen photographs of the injuries of l-'t seamen from the Anmiral Graf Spec and that their w< unds were consistent with the ii ry that mustard gas had been used. This doctor was Dr. Walter Meerhoff. He is an eye specialist and he published articles in the Uruguayan Pi ess insisting that tlie injuries to the sailors wore due to mustard gas. I An l ruguayan medical commission, appointed at the request of the British Legation, ridiculed his claim. Now comes the news that Dr. Meerhoff has been dismissed from his post at the Government-operated Pasteur Hospital. The dismissal was ordered by the President of Uruguay and was officially declared to he due to the fact that Dr. Meerhoff had “cast aspersions on the State of Uruguay, compromising the good faith of the Government, and cast doubt on Uruguayan neutrality.” But we will not hear this from Nazi radio stations.