AN ADMIRALTY STATEMENT

Grey River Argus, 3 February 1917, Page 5

AN ADMIRALTY STATEMENT

f ♦ HOSPITAL SHIPS' PASSENGERS. ENEMY'S CRIMINAL LIES. REFUTED BY THE ADMIRALTY. Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn) (Ree. February 2 10.55 p.m.) LONDON, February 2. The Admiralty states that a German wireless message alleges that the Britannic carried 2500 British soldiers and not invalids. The allegation is based upon the sworn testimony of I Albert Messany, an Austrian singer, .who was interned at Malta at the out--1 break of the war, and returned to England in November, aboard the Britannic. The only true statement of Messany J s story is the fact that, he returned by the Britannic, because he was invalided and for which reason he was repatriated. The German press messages are filled with similar falsehoods with a view to manufacturing pretexts for the latest method of warfare. The Admiralty has announced, and it cannot be too emphatically restated, that never since the beginning of the wa r have any but invalids and the hospital staff embarked .upon any British hospital ship.