GERMAN SEA-RAIDER

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 November 1939, Page 7

GERMAN SEA-RAIDER

IS SHE POCKET-BATTLESHIP ?

S. AFRICAN AERIAL SEARCH

[BY CARLE—PBESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.]

LONDON, November 17.

The Cape Town correspondent of the ‘‘Daily Telegraph” says that the entire South African aerial coast patrol is searching for the German raider which sank the tanker Africa Shell, of 706 tons, inside Portuguese territorial waters, 180 miles north-east of Lourenco Marques. The tanker’s crew say that the raider was a pocket-battleship. The raider fired a shell across the tanker’s bows. An officer and ratings boarded the tanker and took foodstuffs, wines and the captain aboard the raider. The remainder of the crew, consisting of six Europeans and 21 natives, rowed to the shore. The: naval correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph”’ comments that there would be ample time for either of the German pocket-battleships, the Deutschland or the Admiral Scheer, to reach this region travelling at an economical speed of 15 knots. Significance is attached to the fact that the Africa Shell is a tanker, though she was empty when she was sunk.

IDENTITY A MYSTERY. LOURENCO MARQUES LOURENCO MARQUES, Nov. 17. The crew of the Africa Shell state that the ship was stopped by a German cruiser, but mystery continues to surround its identity. DISGUISED AS WARSHIPS, (Recd. November 18, 11.25 a.m.) COPENHAGEN, November 17A neutral observer, upon arrival from Germany, reported that the Admiral Scheer and Deutschlahd were in a German harbour. The ships in the Atlantic and elsewhere at present were disguised to represent pocketbattleships, in the hope of luring Britain’s best ships from European waters. WAR ON NEUTRALS. RUTHLESS U-BOATS TACTICS. RUGBY, November 16. The ruthless character which the German war on neutral merchant shipping has assumed has been illustrated in the torpedoing last Sunday without warning of the Norwegian tanker, Arne Kjode, by a German. U-boat. In this case no attempt was made on the part of the U-boat to save the crew of the torpedoed ship, although the weather was bad and its position was far from land.

The crew of the Arne Kjode took to the boats, but it was not until after more than two days that 23 men in one boat were picked up. They were suffering severely from exposure. Twenty hours later 12 more members of the crew were picked up, but five are still missing. British ships effected these rescues.

From evidence obtained it is clear that the U-boat could not possibly have taken the Arne Kjode for anything but what she was a neutral tanker. The action of the submarine constitutes a brutal disregard of the rules of submarine warfare to which the Nazi Government pledged itself.