Unrestricted Mine Warfare

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 278, 24 November 1939, Page 7

Unrestricted Mine Warfare

Germany’s Reply To British Reprisals NEUTRAL ANGER OVER DEVELOPMENTS United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. Received Thursday, 10.30 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 23. The Daily Telegraph’s Rotterdam correspondent says it is officially stated in Borlin that Germany will meet the export control with unrestricted mine warfare. A Tokio message says the sinking oi the Tcrukuni Maru, a liner of which Japan was very proud, has shocked tho Japanese. The newspapers chorused a protest urging the Government to demand that belligerents respect Japan’s rights as a neutral. Tho Daily Mail’s Amsterdam correspondent says the Government has issued a statement regarding export control. The “cruel character of the British mcasuros for the Netherlands” admits of no doubt. It is manifest how much damage will be caused when ships remain weeks in British ports owing to the disorganisation of the control service. This means an unbearable expenditure. A neutral Government cannot allow itself to be forced to declare that goods aboard its ships shall not bo re-export-ed in any form to any country. The Brussels correspondent of The Times says Belgian shipping circles are alarmed at the British export control. The Government will protest to Britain. Netherlands newspapers attack export control. The Belgian and Netherlands Ministers of Economics are conferring with a view to intensifying mutual trade. The Ministry of Economic Warfare states that German firms in neutral countries are attempting to use neutral forwarding agents to smuggle United States goods to Germany. The United States exports to Germany in September were 12,000,000 dollars below September, 1930, while exports to Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands wore nearly 11,000,000 dollars higher. The coincidence is considered to bo too close, tho Ministry says. The Ordcr-in-Council which is expected in a fqw days, does not constitute a blockade, which entails tho seizure of all ships entering or leaving Germany.

Japs Indignant Over German Mine Campaign GRATITUDE FOR BRITISH RESCUE EFFORTS (British Official Wireless.) Received Thursday, 9.20 p.m. RUGBY, Nov. 22. The German News Agency yesterday quoted a report by the Yugoslav newspaper Vreme that the Yugoslav Lloyd Shipping Company ordered its ships not to call at British ports. This is false. The Vreme merely stated that it learnt such a step was being contemplated. The company states that no foundation whatever for this allegation exists and has issued a dementi in to-day’s Boatski Glasnik. Further evidence that tho recent losses of British and neutral merchant ships off the east coast of England were due to German mines purposely laid in order to inflict loss on neturals is provided by the testimony of the captain of the Japanese liner Tcrukuni Maru sunk by a mine yesterday. He states that it was broad daylight and the visibility was good. He nad five look outs posted. The explosion occurred underneath the ship, lifting it and throwing the men off their feet. This fact to which tho Japanese master attests would dispose summarily of the suggestion—which Nazi propaganda would doubtless repeat—that the sinking was due to a drifting British mine, even if it had not already been established that British mines are carefully designed and constructed to become harmless on breaking away from their moorings. The Terukuui Maru had visited the British Contraband Control Station from which she had been cleared after only five hours’ delay. She had a British pilot on board of whose conduct the Japanese captain expressed himself in tho warmest terms, stating that the pilot remained on the bridgo with hiix and had been reluctant to leave even when ordered to do so by the captain. That there was no loss of life was due to a combination or —daylight, calm weather and the fact that tho captain gave the order to lower the boats. Moreover, there wero in the vicinity several British auxiliary craft and these played a big part in the rescue of the passengers and crew. The greatest indignation was naturally shown by Japanese and other neutral shipping companies at the illegal and wanton mining by Germany of shipping channels with the obvious intention of inflicting loss on foreign and the intimidation of merchant shipping.

Questioned in the Commons about the lying tales of the sinking or the Athenia being circulated by Nazi agents in letters posted in neutral countries, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Admiralty said these stories wero so obviously false that he thought the truth could safely be left to find its own acceptance.

The German broadcaster from the Deutschlandsender announced that the Finnish steamer Arne Kjodo was sunk near Denmark by a floating British mine. The truth is quite otherwise. According to a number of naval books tho Arne Kjodo was a Norwegian tanker. She was not sunk by a mine hut torpedoed by a German U-boat, She

was not sunk off Denmark but northwest of the Orkneys and the survivors and crew were landed at the Orkneys and the west coast of Scotland,