U.S. FLEET

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 21 July 1925, Page 5

U.S. FLEET

MEN OVERBOARD. A MYSTERY OF THE SEA. TRIPS COMPARED. [By Radio Special Representative of the Australian Press Association aboard the Seattle.] AT SEA, July 21. Admiral Coontz, in a conversation referring to the smoothness of our trip from Honolulu, commented on the fact that during the 1908 trip 16 men went overboard, eight of whom were rescued. On this trip only three have gone overboard, and all were picked up. The loss of a tuan overboard from a warship at sea is often inexplicable; sometimes there is a broken life line to give a clue to the cause, but more often it remains one of the undeciphered mysteries of the sea.

ENTERTAINMENT OF THE MEN. ADMIRAL PLEASED. WELLINGTON, July 21. Admiral Coontz, in a letter to the Department of Internal Affairs, expresses himself as being weiv pleased with the arrangements made for entertaining the fleet, and congratulates the authorities on the thoroughness of the information sent. The Admiral suggests that in connection with shore leave advisory information to officers and men as to points of interest will be welcomed. The official Government programme provides for this, as at Auckland and Wellington bureaux will be set up near the wharves f°r the express purpose of giving such information, and similar facilities will be provided at Lyttelton and Dunedin. Arrangements will be made for visits of large parties to Hamilton, Masterton, Napier, Palmerston North, and Wanganui, and successive batches will be taken to Rotorua and some of them to V aitomo Caves.

YESTERDAY’S POSITION. SYDNEY, July 20. A message from the Seattle this morning gives the position of the fleet at noon on Sunday’ as 591 miles from Port Phillip and 60S miles from Sydnev. The weather wa.s line and the sea calm. The fleet will divide sixty miles off Gabo on Tuesday, one section proceeding to Metboumo and the other to Sydney.

THE LIQUOR QUESTION. AIR. C. M. LUKE’S EXPLANATION . (m tblkukapk —press association. AUCKLAND, July 20

“Evidently the liquor trade is in a highly nervous condition when it is so alarmed by a cabled statement that I waited on Admiral Coontz while in Honolulu in the interests of Prohibition,’! said Air. C. M. Luke, of Wellington, to-dlay on his arrival here by the Niagara. ~ Air. Luke gave a very emphatic denial to tlie ■suggestion that he had endeavoured to influence the Admiral in ®the matter of possible drinking among the men when the fleet is in New Zealand waters.

“1 desire to say,” stated Mr. Luke, “that 1, with a; delegation from the V.M.C.A., waited on the Admiral at Honolulu in connection with the ente>rtainment of the men when they arrived in New Zealand, and incidentally only was reference made to the men of the fleet, who had landed at Honolulu in batches of from 8000 to 10,000 daily. I remarked upon the sobriety of the men, as I had not seen one drunken man ashore. I asked the Admiral if he had any fear as to the eorns-equences when, the men arrive in wet countries, and he answered that he had not. He said he relied on bis men when visiting wet countries to maintain the same hieh, conduct that had marked them in all instances.”

VISIT TO' MASTEIRTON

MASTER,TON, July 20

A public meeting was field to-night to arrange for the reception of American sailors, 350 of whom are spending a day here on August 13. Five days later 50 officers will spend a day and a night a>s the guests of citizens. At a meeting of the executive He matter of CSpplving liquor at the public luncheon was discussed. Opinion was divided on the matter, but a resolution that no liquor be provided for either sailors or officers at any public function was carried without dissent.