RAIDER AGAIN

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 307, 16 December 1940, Page 8

RAIDER AGAIN

New Zealand Ship Intercepted ANOTHER SEEN SHELLED AND ON FIRE P«r Press Association. The Prime Minister, Mr P. Fraser, arviounccd to-day with deep regret that -reports received from Nauru Island indicated that a British ship wr»i on fire off the island last Sunday morning. The weather was bad, and poor visibility hindered observation. In the afternoon the ship was ».ecn on fire and was apparently being shelled by another vessel, and both shortly disappeared. All British shipping known to be in the vicinity was instructed to proceed to other ports. This instruction, and the necessary wirefe:r. silence imposed on shipping is responsible for the fact that nothing further has been sighted from Nauru, and no reports have yet been received from the ships concerned, but unfortunately there appear to be substantial indications that at least one other vessel—the only one on New Zealand articles —has been Vtercepted by a raider. The next-od-kin of all those on board this second vessel have already been arvised by telegram of all the facts that are available, and of the sympathy of the New Zealand Government in their anxiety. Wireless communications with Nauru, which is under the care of the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board, is being maintained, and further information is awaited. [Nauru Island is immediately south of the Equator, and a few hundred miles south-west of the Japaneseoccupied Marshall Islands.!