SUEZ CANAL BLOCKED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 167, 14 June 1940, Page 8

SUEZ CANAL BLOCKED

ALLIED WARSHIPS ACT ITALIAN U-BOATS OUT (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) ~ '* LONDON," June 12. The Associated Press Alexandria correspondent says strong concentrations of Allied warships have blocked the Suez Canal, cutting off Italy from her East African empire. , r , r ]■ Admiral Itaeder (the-German Naval Chief) is reported to have assumed an active part-in the direction of the Italian operations. s Eight Italian submarines are believed to be operating in the Bed Sea. There are, a'few. small Italian ships eastward.-, of Suez, but the majority of the naval forces are concentratedp in the Mediterranean.

In Rome it is official!v announced that Italy broke off diplomatic relations before the war with the Governments of Belgium, Holland, Norway and Poland. The Italian Ambassador to Russia (Signor Rosso) has arrived, at Moscow. INTERCEPTED SHIP. MELBOURNE, June 13. When the Italian ship Romolo was .intercepted in the Pacific the crew set fire to the ship and took to the boats... The intercepting ship rescued all the passengers and crew. The Romolo later stink. - SHIP TAKES REFUGE. ESCAPE FROM SUBMARINE. U-BOAT’S ACTION. LONDON, June 12. A French transport, the GouverneurGenernl Lepine, carrying 700 Senegalese soldiers and civilians, is reported to have taken refuge at Alicante (Spain) all day to escape a submarine. She later left to avoid internment. Authoritative German circles have admitted that a U-boat held up the American liner Washington. They explained they were not informed the vessel was calling at Galway. German warships stopped the Estonia en route from Tallinn to Stockholm and took off 120 bags of mad from England and France.