GERMAN NAVAL CHIEF

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 October 1939, Page 12

GERMAN NAVAL CHIEF

ADMIRAL RAEDER’S CAREER That Admiral Raeder, Commander-in-Chief of the German Fleet, should have lent aid to the Nazi campaign against Britain and have sent the sensational message to the American Embassy concerning the Iroquois seems to have caused surprise to the British Admiralty. This is natural, because Admiral Raeder, a naval commander of the old school, has been regarded in Britain as a man of the highest integrity. At the time the Nazis determined to denounce the naval treaty with Britain it was declared in the British Press that the terms of the treaty had been scrupulously observed, and this was ascribed to the influence of the admiral. He was, in many respects, one of the fathers of that treaty, for he was in charge of the German programme of secret construction, including submarine craft, which led to the naval agreement. He was one of the men who obtained the adoption of the “pocket battleship” by the Reich navy and he played a prominent role in naval training. For a time he was on the Kaiser’s yacht; then, during the World War, was chief of staff with the German battle-cruiser squadrons, t After the war he became vice-admiral. | He commanded the German naval j forces in Spanish waters during the i Spanish War. and figured in the • Deutschland bombing affair.