WAR-TIME CHIVALRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21296, 24 September 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

WAR-TIME CHIVALRY

BRITISH LINERS SPARED GALLANTRY OF GERMANS EARLY DAYS OF THE WAR The story of how British liners were spared by German cruisers in the early days" of the war was told recently at the Conference of the International Law Association at Oxford. Problems of neutrality at sea in time of war were under consideration. The conference had before it a proposed new code of laws on the rights and duties,of belligerents toward neutral property. One of the suggested laws reads: " A merchant vessel shall not be destroyed or iendered incapable of navigation except in the case of persistent re- ' f„ Sa l to stop on being duly summoned, or of active resistance to visit and search. In either case the passengers, crew and ship's papers must first be placed in safety. " For this purpose the vessel s boats are not regarded as a place of safety unless the safety of the passengers and crew is assured in the existing sea and weather conditions, by the. proximity of land, or the ,presence of another vessel is in a position to take them on board." Sir Graham Bower, the veteran naval authoritv, remarked that no merchant vessel, with its limited accommodation, could,provide for the safety of the passengers, numbering from 3000 to 5000, who crowded an Atlantic liner. It was recalled by Sir Graham how in August. i 914, just after the outbreak of . the Great War, the German cruiser, Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse met a Union-Castle liner/homeward bound from South Afiica. The captain of the cruiser stopped the steamer and found that there were pasFehgers on board, including women, and children, for whom he could not provide accommodation in his ship. He said to the captain of the liner: "I apologise for giving fhe ladies an unnecessary fright. All 1 require is that you will destroy your wireless. Then you may go free." The'wireless apparatus was destroyed and the Jiner was allowed to proceed on her way. "On the same day," continued Sir Graham, " the German cruiser sighted a Royal Mail steamer bound from Buenos Aires to Southampton, and exactly the same thing happened. In the same month the German warship Dresden met three ships in similar circumstances,, and the same thing again occurred. " In Oxford," added Sir Graham, *' the flames of German students who fell in the war are placed on the roll of honour. If you have a roll of honour for the heroes of international law, I hope you will inscribe on it the names of those two" German captains. It was an example of chivalry on their part. " Nobody seems to know these facts, g though really they come from the official history of the war. I have found that if you want to keep a secret you should pot it into a Government publication oi a official history of the war. You may then J>e quite sure that nobody will read it.