SUBMARINE SCARE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23429, 19 August 1939, Page 15

SUBMARINE SCARE

QUEENSLAND WATERS REPORTS FROM THE COAST LIGHTS SEEN AT NIGHT FRUITLESS AIR SEARCH By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received August 18, 9.80 p.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. IS For more than a week three aeroplanes have been engaged in a search of coastal waters near Townsville because of reports that strange craft, resembling submarines, have been seen there, says a message from Brisbane. The Minister of Defenpe, Mr, G-. A, Street, who is in Sydney, to-day stated that investigations appeared to have proved that the reports were groundless. A number of people on different parts of the coast had reported to his department that they had seen a submarine showing lights. The Minister admitted that a special search of the locality had been made by the Air Force earlier in the week, but said that nothing of a suspicious nature had been seen. He had come to the conclusion that what had been reported must have been whales, not submarines. Further reports from Brisbane to-day, however, strengthen the view that a submarine is operating in tlie vicinity of the Barrier Reef, where the crews of fishing boats, all reliable men, adhere to their original statement, and also repeat the assertion that a periscope was seen on various occasions. Captain' Leslie Thompson, of Bundaberg, stated that, while sailing a yacht 60 miles off Bundaberg en route to the Barrier Beef last night he saw a bright light, a mile and a-half on the port beam, accompanied by flares. Thinking that a vessel was in distress, he set his course in that direction, but when he reached the scene, the vessel had disappeared or submerged. Residents of Palm Island are quite convinced that lights they saw recently were those of a submarine, not ordinary ship's lights. There is some speculation as to whether the lights were those of a vessel engaged in smuggling Chinese, or opium, into Australia.