REPRISALS AT LAST.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 4526, 18 April 1917, Page 5

REPRISALS AT LAST.

VENGEANCE FOR HOSPITAL SHIPS. BRITISH AI fT RAID ON GERMAN TOWN. BOMBS DROPPED WITH GOOD RESULTS. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association and Beuters. (Received April 17, 6.35 p.m.) , - LONDON, April 17. Tlie Admiralty announces that owing to German submarine attacks on hospital ships, in direct and flagrant contravention of the Hague Convention, Article 10, a large squadron of_ Anglo-French aeroplanes carried out" a reprisal bombardment of the German town of Fribur'g on Saturday. Many bombs were dropped with good results. Despite many air fights, all our machines returned safely, except three.

Germany Was fully warned what to expect if she Continued her attacks on hospital ships. On January 31 of this year the British Foreign Office made the following announcement:— “The German Government announces that ‘they have conclusive proof that in several instances enemy hospital ships have often been misused for the transport of munitions and troops.’ They also state that they have placed these proofs, through diplomatic channels, before the British and French and have at the same time declared that traffic of hospital ships on the military routes for . the forces fighting in France and Belgium within a line drawn between Flamborough Head and Terschelling (Holland) on the one hand and from Ushant to Land’s End on the other will no longer be tolerated.

“His Majesty’s Government have received no such communication through' diplomatic chaanaels or otherwise from the German Government, as is alleged, and they most .emphatically deny that British hospital ships have been used for the transport of munitions and troops, or in any way contrary to the Hague Convention for tlie adaptation of the principles of the Geneva Convention to maritime war.

“Under the Convention belligerents have the right to search hospital ships, and the German Government have therefore an obvious remedy in case of suspicion—a remedy which they have never utilised. “From the German Government s statement that hospital ships will no longer be tolerated within the limits mentioned ‘only one conclusion can he drawn, namely, that it is the intention of the German Government to add yet other and more unspeakable crimes against law and liumanitv to the long list which disgraces their record.’ ~ . “In these circumsiances His Majesty’s Government have requested the United States Government to inform the German Government that His Majesty’s Government have decided that ‘if the threat is carried out reprisals will immediately be taken by the British authorities coneerneu. The town of Friburg, bombarded by the British, has a population of over 70,000. It- is in Baden, 32 miles N.N.E. of Basle.