GERMAN RAIDERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume L, Issue 175, 23 October 1917, Page 5

GERMAN RAIDERS

CONVOY ATTAOKfcS IN NORTH SEA BRITISH DESTROYERS OUTCLASSED. NINE NEUTRAL VESSELS SUNK. CREWS LEFT TO DROWN. (Australian and N.Z. OabU Asfi«oiati»n and Reater.) ' LONDON, Oct. 20. The Admiralty reports that two fast and heavily armed German raiders attacked on Wednesday a convoy in the North Sea between the Shetland Islands and the Norwegian coast. Two British destroyers, the Mary Rose and the Strongbow, who formed the escort, engaged the raiders, and fought until they were sunk after an unequal engagement. Their gallant action delayed the raiders, enabling three merchant vessels to escape. Five Norwegian, one Danish, and three Swedish vessels, all _ unarmed, were sunk without ' examination or warning, and regardless of the lives of the crews and passengers. Lengthy comment on the action of the Germans is unnecessary. It only adds another example to the long list of criminally inhuman deeds of the Germany navy. The Admiralty adds that the German vessels, anxious to escape before the British forces could intercept them, made no effort to rescue the crews of the British destroyers. They also left the doomed merchant ships, leaving the British patrol vessels to rescue thirty Norwegians and others of whom details are as yet unknown. The German navy by their act _ has once more and further degraded itself by disregard.of the historic chivalry of the sea.

An enemy official message states that the attack was within territorial waters in the neighbourhood of the Shetland Islands, and that all the escort vessels, including destroyers, were sunk, excepting one of the escort and a fishing steamer.

The Admiralty declares that the German statement of the locality of the attack and the destruction of the escort vessels is untrue.. The enemy raiders succeeded in evading the British watching squadrons during the long, dark night, both in their hurried outward dash and their homeward flight.

It is regretted that 88 officers -■ and men of the Mary Rose, and 47 officers and men of the Strongbow were lost. BERGEN, Oct. 20.

Ten men, including two officers, of the Mary Rose landed here. They were rescued by the lifeboat of a Norwegian steamer from two buoys to which they had clung.

SURVIVORS'STATEMENTS

DESTROYERS 'OUTMATCHED

OOLD-BLOODED MURDER OF DEFENCELESS. SAILORS.

Australian and N.Z. Q&bla Association - >

COPENHAGEN, Oct. 21. The admiral commanding at.Christiania reports that the convoy survivors reached Bergen. They, state that the convoy, consisting of twelve merchantmen escorted by two British destroyers, was attacked on Wednesday morning by two large German warships. The latter . ordered the. apnvoy to stop, and started firing immediately, quickly sinking the destroyers, which were inferior in size and equipment. The merchantmen were then sunk seriatim. The firing lasted an hour. The merchantmen launched • some lifeboats, but the boats filled in thelieavy sea. -' After all the vessels had been sunk the enemy departed. The survivors saved several men from the wreckage, and reached, Norway after two days' suffering in the. open sea. It is reported that fifteen survivors from, the British destroyers reached Norway. Eighty-five sailors in the convoy perished. The captain of the, Norwegian steamer Kerstine, the sole survivor from his ship, states that his crew took to the boats, but the Germans continued firing. A shell hit one boat and killed nine. The crew in despair returned to the steamer, and signalled to stop firing, without result. The German press utter a chorus of exulting praise, seeing in this and the Oesel operations proof. of the bold offensive spirit of the German fleet. The Cologne Gazette publishes an article headed "Where is the British Fleet?" .

Two officers and eight men, survivors of the Mary Rose, who were landed at Bergen,' will not be interned, as they 'were rescued, by a Norwegian life boat after the destroyer had sunk. : Purther reports state that the. British destroyers fought gallantly, but were sunk in half an hour, the men bravely sticking to the guns to the last. Terrible scenes were enacted on the decks of the defenceless merchantmen, many jsailors birig. killed. . : .' The weather is now calm, and it is, hoped that there will be further survivors.

LESS THAN HAIF THE CREWS.

RESCUED.

(Australian and N.Z. Oabl» AM«da>UAn.)

CBRISTIANIA, Oct. 21. On© hundred and nineteen men from the conviyed vessels landed from a lifeboat oh the Norwegian coast. These are considerably below half the crews.

AN INQUIRY ASKEO> F.OR.

(Rm. Oct. 23. 12.10 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 22. In the House of Commons, Commander Bellaires demanded an independent enquiry into the loss of the neutral convoy. " He declared that the escort was obviously inadequate. (Dr. McNarriara replied' that the Government was not prepared for such an enquiry,' but a Naval enquiry would be arranged.

WORKMEN'S DWELLINGS

BUIUDINGS L ON GENEROUS SCALE. WITH SUBSTANTIAL GARDENS. fAustralian and N.Z. Cabl* Association. • jJONDON, Oct. 21. The Government'' is 'building a workmen's dwellings of standard de*isros to meet, urgent Avar needs, and also two hundred thousand later m anticipation of after neeus. The buildings are desin-ned on a generous scale with substantial gai-dens