U-BOAT WARFARE

Hokitika Guardian, 20 March 1940, Page 5

U-BOAT WARFARE

MORE SINKINGS

FOUR BOATS LOST.

(United Press Association—By Electric

Tel egrapli—Copyright,;,

LONDON, March 18. The steamer Tiberton is overdue and is presumed to have been dost. 1

The Berlin, radio announced' '••that the Basra was sunk iii tile' North ’Sea by a collision. The creW ls wtTo picked up. ; t "

The Tinaprimo was split in twain by an explosion. Thirty-six men landed, and Kino perished.

Four survivors of the Melrose iia*« arrived from Belgium. The captain said that the ship sank in 20 seconds.

COPENHAGEN, March 18.

The Danish fishing boat Marri was bombed and machine-gunned 155 miles from the coast of Nordsoen. Other vessels were also attacked. WASHINGTON, March 18.

The State Department announced that the Bergeiisford would be permitted to sail without mails, as an act oi: courtesy, pending clarification.

NEW U-BOAT DANGER.

NEW YORK, March 19

The New York “Times” Shanghai correspondent reports that British, I'reneJi, Japanese, and United States Navai officers ure focussing their attention on the Commodore (Islands, as it is known that the Soviet is now fortifying Bering and Medny, .the main islands of the Kamandorsky Group, with a strong submarine base in the Bei'ing Straits.

It is feared that the Russians may grant to Germany the use of the base ior raids on shipping in the Pacific Ocean, in the event of the Allies becoming embroiled with -the Soviet. A large group of German Naval officers flew to the Karmandorsky Islands during December. They remained until late in January. In addition, ...twenty. German submarine commanders visited the Kamondorsky Islands during January, as they did earlier in November. Moreover, • German Diesel engine experts, from the Reich, the United States, Mexico, China, and the Philippines, have gathered at Vladivostok and have flown to these islands in parties of twelve.

The twentyone Germans whom the British Navy seized on January 2, from the Japanese liner “Asama Maru” on the Pacific, had tickets to Germany, but the. British authorities at Shanghai believe that, this was a blind, as most of the Germans seized are going to the Karmandorsky Islands.

There are Russian submarines in the Pacific Ocean which were fabricated in European Russia, and were sent to Vladivostok and there assembled. If they are granted the use of the Soviet Blase in the Islands the Germans w ? ould be able to likewise.