TWO-HOUR BATTLE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 9 January 1940, Page 5

TWO-HOUR BATTLE

WITH GERMAN SUBMARINE HIGHLAND PATRIOT PASSENGERS ALARMED TWO TORPEDOES FIRED [U.P.A.-By Electric Telegraph-Copyright] (Received 9th January, 10.35 a.m.) RIO DE JANEIRO, Bth January Passengers on the British liner Highland Patriot told of a two-hour battle with a German submarine when a few hours out from the Canary Islands, in the course of which the Üboat fired two torpedoes perilously close to the bow of the liner. The steamer retaliated with a 4-inch gun mounted aft, whereupon the U-boat submerged and fled. The passengers were panic-stricken and milled about, one being fatally injured in the crush. Official British sources denied the passengers’ story that one passenger died from injuries resulting from panic. CEDRINGTON COURT ALL CREW SAVED PETS GO DOWN WITH SHIP [British Official Wireless] (Received 9th January, 10 a.m.) RUGBY, Bth January. All of the crew of 34 of the London cargo steamer Cedrington Court, of 5160 tons, sunk yesterday by a mine off the South Coast, were saved although the vessel sank within ten minutes of the explosion. Five of the survivors were taken to hospital, but only one was detained. He was on look-out and was blown 20 feet into the air by the force of the explosion, landing on the deck with a broken leg. The crew’s pets, four monkeys, five canaries and a cat went down with the ship. naval’casualties ADMIRALTY ANNOUNCEMENT [British Official Wireless] RUGBY, 7th January. The Admiralty has issued a list of casualties “arising from various hazards of the service of war and not related to any particular action.” The list, in addition to those previously published, includes all the naval casualties up to 14th December (the day after the scuttling of the Admiral Graf Spee), and contains the names of 20 officers and 186 ratings. The list is as follows: —Officers, Seven killed, one died from wounds, three died, four missing, believed killed, two taken prisoner of war, three wounded. Ratings: Fifty-eight killed, three died from wounds, 44 died, seven missing, believed killed, 103 injured on war service.

ATTACKS ON TRAWLERS BY GERMAN AIRCRAFT SURVIVORS’ ACCOUNTS rU.P.A.—By Electric Telegraph-Copyright) LONDON, Bth January. Accounts of the attacks by German aircraft on two unarmed Scottish trawlers were given to-day when the survivors arrived at a north-east coast port from Norway. Mr David Addison, a seaman of the trawler Trinity N.V., said that on 18th December two German planes, flying low over the boat, swept her decks with machine-gun fire, hitting one man in the leg. “When we tried to launch the boats they fired on us,” he said. “Several bombs were dropped, and the last one cut the trawler in two, and we were left struggling in the water clinging to the wreckage. “William Murray, a fireman, was drowned. We were in the water for an hour before being picked up by a Danish motor-ship, which took us to Norway.” The other trawler, which was named the River Earn, was also fishing in the North Sea on 19th December, and had on board three survivors from the Danish steamer Boge, which had been mined. Two German aircraft bombed the trawler and fired their machineguns at the crew as they tried to launch a boat. The trawler’s crew was picked up by a Swedish steamer 36 hours later. CREW OF COLUMBUS LONG JOURNEY HOMEWARD Members of the crew of the German liner Columbus, which was scuttled in the Atlantic last month, are to travel three-quarters of the way round the world to get home, according to a Japanese newspaper. The paper states that 40 of them, including the captain, were expected to leave Los Angeles yesterday, and that 220 more are travelling by Japanese liners to-morrow. The crew of the Columbus, numbering nearly 600, were landed in New York by a United States warship after they had sunk their own ship.—By radio. UNEMPLOYMENT DECREASE MINISTRY OF LABOUR FIGURES FURTHER REDUCTION [British Official Wireless] (Received 9th January. 10.23 a.m.) RUGBY, Bth January. A further reduction in unemployment is recorded in a Ministry of Labour announcement which states that at 11th December the numbers of unemployed persons on the registers of employment exchanges in Britain, including those wholly unemployed, temporarily stopped and normally in casual employment, totalled 1,361,525, of whom 897,984 were men. This total was 41,063 less than the number on the registers at 13th November, and 465,947 less than at 12th December, 1939. GERMAN ECONOMY VAST TASK FACES GOERING The vast task facing Field-Marshal Goering of harnessing Germany’s economy to meet a prolonged war is referred to by the Berlin correspondent of the Danish newspaper “National Zeitung.”

The first task facing Field-Marshal Goering was to raise more sums of mom»y for war purposes. Germany was already spending 50 million marks a year, he said, exclusive of ordinary expenditure on State and municipality undertakings.

That sum, which was equivalent to £5.000.000.000, would have to be squeezed out of the people, said the writer. He added that the present taxation in Germany was based on the short war with Poland The further taxation measures contemplated were to meet the cost of a prolonged struggle.—By radio.