SUBMARINES

Grey River Argus, 31 December 1920, Page 6

SUBMARINES

HOW NORWAY SUFPEEED. Oil June 12, 1917 (says "The Times"), the Norwegian Storthing aecidod to publish a detailed statement, giving a e&Mplete report of the 1 sworn testimony Of the witnesses Concerned, of the losses sustained *by the Norwegian iufefcahfcilg rnaviiig through acts Of war. In due time the report appeared in five considerable volumes, under the title of " Sjof orklaringcr Over Norskc Skibes Krigsforlis" — nautical declarations regarding the. war losses of Norwegian Shipping— and a WGjV edition has ft«\V appeared in the prosont French translation; The intcn-, sifted U-boat campaign,' the "sink-at-sight" policy, announced fof February 1, 1017, played huvoc with helpless merchant ships. Thus, while the number of Norwegian ships sunk during the first six months of 1916 wag 33, the number for the ilrst six months of. 1917 was 300. If we, take the complete list of Norwegian losses for the whole period of the Avar, .we find, that 829 Norwegian ships— a total of 1,239,--286 registered tons— were sunk. The I jjisirrance for 801 of these ships amounted to nearly £50,000,000. So far the material losses; but in addition to these, 1162 Norwegian seamen were killed; how many were injured wo do' not" know; and these losses, it should be- noted, are for a small neutral country of 2,600,000 inhabitants Yet, to the hoilbur of Norwegian seamen, be it said, no Norwegian crew ever refused to face the "risks of taking their 'ships to any port, required. How terrible wrb the nature of the risks the declarations in these volumes show; and the risks for neutral ships were greater than for others, because there was not the remotest chance^ that they might "hit back./' Ships were attacked' — torpedoed or raked withgunfire—without a -word of warning. The King Haakon was sunk without warning by a perfect hall of metal ok June 24, 191.7; the submarine opened fire at a distance of about 30 yards, sinking the ship and bloAving half its crew to shreds. Of the crew of 23 , there wctc but four survivors. LKeboats -were sunk with their occupants, who had managed to escape from the doomed vesse^ In some few] cases the submarine commanders had . the common decency to give a lifeboat a low towards the coast when the sinking took place far out to sea. Generally the survivors were left to shift for themselves. , In one case a' child was held up in its mother's arms in. the hope that this would be an effective means of appealing for a tow. It had no effect. As a Tcsult 14 men and • three women died of exposure before the boats reached the Scotch coast. Norwegian ships flying the Belgian relief flag, and carrying food to starving occupied areas were sunk without hesitation. Worst of all," many 1 ships disappeared without leaving a trace spurlos versenkt. . The facts here collected demonstrate, more clearly than anything else could, that not merely the sympathy but the practical help of the Norwegian merchant service was ours, -without stint, during one of the darkest days of our history.