MISSING NAVAL PAPERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21906, 15 September 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

MISSING NAVAL PAPERS

LABEL BECOMES DETACHED DOCUMENTS SOON TRACED REFERENCES TO WARSHIPS A sensation was caused in Britain on .August 3 when it became known that Admiralty documents, due to arrive at Portsmouth dockyard, were missing, and that Scotland Yard officers were engaged in an anxious search. The papers, however, were found late at night at the town from which they had been sent! The papers, which contained descriptions of trials with new ships and guns, were in a box on which a company s name appeared. The box was addressed to Portsmouth, but apparently the label was lost, and it was sent back to the North of England in mistake. It was sent to the police at Jarrow. The train taking the papers to Portsmouth from London stopped at sixteen stations, and Secret Service and Scotland Yard men were concentrating on inquiries at these stations until tho news that the box was found became known.

The conspicuous red box, which is 24in. by 21in. by 14in., waa despatched from Newcastle three days previously and reached London safely on August 2. The senders were Messrs. R. Hawthorn and W. Leslie and Co., Ltd., marine engineers, and tho box bore tho address of their shipyard at Hebburn-on-Tvne, near Jarrow. After crossing London, says the Daily Mail, the box was placed by an Admiralty messenger in the guard's van of a train leaving Waterloo at 2 p.m. The box and its contents were missing when an Admiralty representa-

tivo went to collect the consignment at Portsmouth. An alarm was raised immediately, but thorough inquiries among the railway officials on the train and at Portsmouth station yielded no clue. The Hebburn-on-Tyne stationmaster said that there was no address to any individual on the box, but it bore the words, " From Portsmouth to Messrs. Hawthorn, Leslie and Co., Hebburn-on-Tyne." The box had apparently travolled from London. The label had become detached and some railway official had placed the box in a northbound train in view of the printed directions on the box. Mr. J. T. Bate.v, managing diroctor of Messrs. Hawthorn, Leslie and Co., Ltd., said he had been informed that a box addressed to his firm had reached Hebburn station. He had no information concerning the contents. Tho box appeared to be intact, and after an official examination it was sent to its proper destination at Portsmouth.

Tho papers wore sufficiently important for the ordinary Admiralty messenger to be accompanied during their transit by a superintendent overseer. It is understood, the Daily Mail said, that the documents related to tho trials of two destroyers recently constructed, which would obviously be interesting to any foreign naval Power. A brief communique announcing the loss of the box and the papers was issued by the Admiralty. It stated: " A box placed on the train leaving Waterloo at 2 p.m. on August 2 for Portsmouth is missing. The box contained papers which are of no great importance. They had come down from a firm in the North of England whose name is on the box. The probability is that it has been returned to that address. Investigation is being made." In view of the widespread nature of the inquiries being made the Admiralty assurance that the papers are "of no great importance," however, was regarded as a means of preventing the spread of alarming stories. All railway officials were sworn to secrecy.