WAR ON WOMEN

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9622, 30 March 1917, Page 3

WAR ON WOMEN

■THRILLING LAST SCENES ON SINKING LINER.

LONDON. February 7. A survivor of thq liner City of Birmingham. tho story of whose sinking was told by the Admiralty, related fuller details to a pressman at Liverpool ,yesterday. This case of German barbarity provides one of the finest instances during the war of grit and coolness on the part of women in tho face of danger. “The women,” ho said, “were wonderful. Before tho ship was torpedoed many had expressed disappointment at not having seen a submarine. But that this was not merely lip bravery was proved when the attack occurred. As 'the following statement indicates, they mustered as calmly as if going down to breakfast. No one showed any sign of panic or hysteria. As for the children, so orderly were the proceedings of taking them to the boats that they obeyed the instructions gleefully, imagining it to be part of the programme of the voyage. “It was a strange scene that followed. Little boats were dotted about the sea. and the occupants were singing popular songs as in the sheltered bay of a seaside resort. But there was m land in. sight—only a big ship rifpidly sinking by tho stem, with _ a solitary figure on board. The captain stood on the extreme point of the bows. lie had insisted on remaining on the ship, and fears for his safety produced the only note of anxiety." Explaining how it was that Captain Haughton did not get away with tho boats, the informant said that the vessel was going down so quickly that it was necessary for the boats to get clear immediately. The whole operation lasted only ten minutes. Captain Ilaughton decided that it was safer to go down with the ship than to Jnmj, overboard, owing to the danger of being drawn underneath. He therefore cooly stood at his post, clinging te the rail. After a few minutes the ship sank, and, still holding on fast, he was drawn down a considerable depth. Ho then loosed his hold and rose to the surface, which had by that time almost resumed its calm. He remembers passing from the blackness of the deep water to the bright green nearer the surface and then, too, the full light. He was rescued by one of the boats after having clung to a deal plank from the wreckage for half an hour. Everybody was got off tho ship safely, but one of the boats capsized, this being the cause of the loss of tho four lives mentioned by the Admiralty.