DUTCH LINER SUNK

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 November 1939, Page 7

DUTCH LINER SUNK

MINE STRUCK IN NORTH SEA

SURVIVORS TELL TRAGIC STORIES

[BY CABLE —PBESB ASSN. —COPYBIGHT.]

LONDON, November 19. The biggest civil shipping disaster of the war occurred last night, when the Netherlands liner Simon Bolivar, of 8309 tons, was sunk by a. mine in the North Sea. Of 260 survivors landed on the east coast, many were seriously injured. . The survivors included 150 members of the crew. It is believed that 280 passengers perished. Other reports state that the total complement was 400, which reduces the number lost to 140. The complement was mostly Netherlands subjects, but there were some British and many women and children passengers.

. The survivors included three babies under 12 months of age. There were agonising scenes at the quayside, where doctors, nurses, and ambulances waited. Women clutched babies to their bosoms. A small baby cried: “Daddy, where are you?” , Most of the survivors, half-clothed, had to jump into the sea and suffered shock. Many were treated on the wharf, and others entrained for London, where they arrived at midniglit, to be transferred to buses and ambulances. _ ( A passenger said: “We hadn’t time to gather clothes and belongings.” “We were off the coast when, without warning, a terrific explosion shook the ship,” said a steward. “People ran to the lifeboats, which were lowered on the starboard side. The boats could not be lowered on the port side because the ship canted. Then there was a second explosion, presumably caused by a mine linked by a chain with the first mine, and the ship capsized.” He added that the ship carried 265 passengers and a large crew. Another survivor said that the ship was 20 miles from port at the time of the explosion. It is learned that two other steamers which were standing by within a qm .rter of a mile of the Simon Bolivar were also damaged by a mine, but managed to limp into port. The Simon Bolivar, which was bound for Guiana, carried 75 British passengers and a number of German ( refugees and Norwegians. Of the sur- i vivors 100 were- injured, 50 seriously. Two hundred and fifty went tp London, including six babies, and 107 were sent to hospital. Many passengers said that the bows lifted from the water. The captain was killed instantly.. One passenger was thrown five feet into the ■ air. A survivor saw others standing near him mowed down like ninepins. The most poignant story was of a giant West Indian, whose wife and two children were drowned. He saved the life of a three-year-old white child whom he intends to adopt. Nearby sat a dazed, shivering mother with her daughter, aged five. Her husband and their two other children were drowned. • Thrilling stories of the rescue were told by other survivors who were picked up by trawlers which appeared from the mists.

One man, a widower, slipped down a rope holding his three-yeaf-6Ta daughter. He found a box floating, put his daughter in it, and swam round for an hour. Both were picked up. According to the Amsterdam correspondent of the British United Press, the owners say there were 170 of the crew and 230 passengers. SEVENTY BRITISH. PASSENGERS (Recd. Nov. 20, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, November 19. Official circles in London consider that the Simon Bolivar, undoubtedly struck a German mine. The Company states that 70 passengers were British. A representative of the Dutch Legation, visiting an East Coast hospital, found that the injured survivors still bore traces of clinging fuel oil, which so blackened them that it was impossible to tell when they landed whether they were whites or negroes. A local tailor, responding to ah appeal, brought garments to an hotel where other survivors were accommodated. He was distributing them when an air-raid warning was sounded, but all went calmly to the shelters. ADMIRALTY STATEMENT GERMAN METHODS CONDEMNED RUGBY, November 18. Following the news received of the sinking of the Simon Bolivar in the North Sea and the landing of survivors at a British east coast port, the Admiralty issued the following statement: —

“The mining of the Netherlands passenger ship Simon Bolivar off the east coast of England is a further example of the utter disregard of international law and the dictates of humanity shown by the present German Government. “The mines were laid without any notification in the channel followed by merchant shipping, both British and neutral, and there is no doubt that they wrere laid for the specific purpose of destroying such shipping.”

GERMAN RUTHLESSNESS.

INTERNATIONAL LAW VIOLATED.

(Recd. November 20, noon.) RUGBY, November 19.

The sinking of the Royal Dutch mail liner Simon Bolivar has evoked feelings of indignation and sympathy. The distaster adds many more lives and another fine ship to the long list of casualties inflicted upon neutrals by. German ruthlessness and disregard for international law. • Among the more recent of these have been the sinking of the Danish liner Canada, by an unnotified German mine, or torpedoing without warning or any attempt to place the crew in safety, and of the sinking of the Norwegian tanker, Arne Kjode. International law demands that, if a belligerent lays mines, he must take every possible precaution to ensure the safety of commercial navigation, aiid must, for this reason, declare a danger area, and warn shipping to keep clear. The Allies have announced every danger area created by them. Germany has announced some danger areas, notably those designed to close the Baltic and to force all neutral shipping passing in or out of that sea to use the Kiel Canal, thus submitting to German contraband control, and bringing to Germany much-needed foreign currency by. the payment of canal and harbour dues.

German U-boats are, however, making a practice of laying clumps of mines iff channels used by merchant shipping on this side of the North Sea. The establishment of these danger areas is not announced, as their whole objective is to inflict losses before the minefields are discovered and swept.

In the case of the Danish ship, Canadd, Germany at once averred that the ship had struck a British mine. It is hardly commonsense to imagine that a maritime nation should illegally lay mines in channels used extensively by its own shipping. Moreover, all the evidence and the statement of the master of the Canada proved it to have been a German mine. If a British warship is damaged by one of these illegal minefields, Germany is only too pleased to claim it as a great success lor German arms, yet if a neutral ship is sunk in this way, the German minefield is at once announced as British, by the German Propaganda Ministry. Further proof of the illegal laying of mines: by Germany in shipping routes bn the west side of the North Sea has been secured by the fact that many German mines have been washed up on the British east coast.

The effect of this ruthless German warfare against neutral shipping is shown by the following quotation from a Norwegian newspaper, referring to the torpedoing without warning of the Norwegian tanker Arne Kjode: “It is proof of open warfare, excluding the aggressor from the civilised community. Such matters can only be resolved when the nation which thus raises its hand against all, finds that every man’s hand is against her/ One cannot exceed the bounds of humanity, even in war.” '*• - MORE STEAMERS SUNK. (Recd. November 20, 2.25 p.m.) LONDON, November 20. German mines sank the Swedish steamer B. O. Borjesson, the British steamer Black Hill, and the Italian steamer. Grazia, off the East Coast, in circumstances similar to the Simon Bolicar. The loss of life is unknown. The Zeebrugge correspondent of the British United Press states that the Lithuanian steamer Kaunas, in ballast for England, was sunk, apparently by a mine. A fishing boat rescued 16 of the crew of 17, and landed them in Belgium. The seventeenth was was drowned. SUBMARINES FOR GERMANY REPORTED SALE BY RUSSIA. NEW YORK, November 19. The Rome correspondent of the United Press of America reports that Russia has agreed to sell to Germany 20 submarines, based on Vladivostock, permitting the use of Vladivostock as a base of operations in the Far East and the Indian Ocean.