FALSE GERMAN CLAIMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 October 1939, Page 8

FALSE GERMAN CLAIMS

ANGLING FOR INFORMATION. [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] RUGBY, October 18. 11, is said in naval circles here that, the repeated. German allegations of successful action against units of the British Navy, while intended’ to hearten the German people by exaggerating the success of the German arms and also to mislead neutral opinion, are designed no less to elicit information on the whereabouts of vessels falsely stated to have been attacked or sunk, and so satisfy the curiosity of the German Naval Command about the. disposition of the British battleships, battle-cruisers, and aircraft-carriers.

This thirst for knowledge, which would be useful to the German Navy in its war on Britain, is observed not entirely without professional sympathy by British naval men, but they have not the slightest intention of issuing the information sought. It is beginning to be understood by the public and the Press here that this very proper determination should be taken into account in criticising the reserve shown by the Admiralty in face of the repeated enemy allegations and boasts.

It is realised that the Admiralty does not propose to be drawn into more than a bare denial of these recurrent, baseless German claims, because it knows that their real purpose is to seek to force it into fuller substantiation of its denials. Such substantiation. would at once dispose of the German stories and convince neutrals, but whatever form it took, it would risk placing in the hands of the German naval intelligence the missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle Germany so badly wants to complete.