ITALIAN LINER AFIRE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 166, 13 June 1940, Page 7

ITALIAN LINER AFIRE.

AUSTRALIAN INTERCEPTION. v j MELBOURNE, June 12. | The Navy Minister (Mr A. C. Cam-j eroii) has announced that the Italian j cargo' passenger liner Romolo, which left Brisbane on June :5, was intercepted in the Pacific by an armed merchant cruiser of the Australian Navy. She was set on fire by the crew, who took to the boats. The Romolo. which was a sister slap to the Remo (captured at Fremantle), was carrying passengers and a large cargo including wool. She cleared Brisbane for Thursday Island, but'as war with Italy was imminent she was shadowed bv ’planes and naval ships. It soon became apparent that she had no intention of proceeding to Thursday Island as she passed through the passage of the Barrier Reef into the Pacific, where she uas intercepted at noon to-ffiay. Mr Cameron said no information was available concerning the condition of the ship, passengers and crew. It 'was announced to-night that 13 patrol vessels for the Royal Navy will be built immediately in the shipyards of the Commonwealth. Each will be ot 840 tons. ’ An earlier Daventry message stated that an Italian ship, laden with 5000 tons of bombs for the Eritrean air force and thousands of tons of cement, had been'captured by the Royal Navy in - tlie Red Sea. Italy’s first losses at sea were at least 27, and possibly nearly 40 mer- ; chant vessels captured or scuttled.