GERMAN PRIVATEERING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16610, 5 February 1916, Page 7

GERMAN PRIVATEERING

THE APPAM CASE,

BRITISH OFFICIAL DEMAND,

LONDON, February 3,

An official demand for the release of the steamer Appam has been made by Sir C. Spring-Rice, the British Ambassador at Washington. APPAM CLOSELY GUARDED. REPORTERS^EXPERIENCES. LONDON, February 3. The New York correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says that the Appam is closely guarded all night, nobody being allowed to go on shore. Lieutenant Berg and a prize crew of 22 still exercise control over 409 prisoners. The passengers believed that the chief reason why the Appam was brought across the Atlantic was to add to the embarrassment of the Administration at Washington, and to give an idea that Great Britain's control of the seas was incomplete. Lientenant Berg warned the reporters " not to come near me, because my men might shoot a reporter occasionally." Nevertheless, the reporters went alongside the steamer in boats, and received scrappy and confusing stories from the passengers. The latter mostly scoffed at the suggestion that it was the Moewe, lately escaped from Kiel Canal, that was responsible for the capture of the liner. They hinted that it was 'a vessel from some Bulgarian port, and that she had been fitted out by the Turks and Bulgars. A WAR PRIZE. GERMAN ADMISSION. INTERESTING LEGAL POINTS. WASHINGTON, February 3. The Neutrality Board now learns that the German Embassy admits that the Appam is a war prize, and not a German auxiliary cruiser. The question now to be settled is whether the Prusso-American Treaty of 1828, whereby Germany and the Thiited States agreed to admit each other's prizes to their ports, overrides Articles 21 and 23 of The Hague Convention, whereon the British Ambassador relies. For the moment the United States authorities are treating the Appam as a British ship which has put into an American port flying the German flag, and in charge of a man who says that he belongs to the German navy. The identity of the Moewe is still undisclosed. A member of the Appam'a crew states that he read the name Ponga upon the armed but disguised merchantman that attacked several British snips. It will possibly bo some weeks I ofore the questions of the ownership and ttaius of the Appam will be decided. The lawyers are actively engaged discussing the matter. The British Consul at Norfolk is arranging that the "passengers and crew shall return to England. Many of them are without money. The authorities have sent coal and food on boaTd the liner. I

The German Embassy at Washington has informed Secretary Lansing that Germany relies on the German-American Treaty of 1828, giving the right to bring enemy prizes into American ports. WASHINGTON, February 4. (Received Feb. 4, at 11.50 p.m.)

It is officially announced that America regards the Appam as a prize.

WHY THE APPAM WAS NOT SUNK,

GERMAN PRISONERS ON BOARD

LONDON, February 3,

The Westminster Gazette says it is evidently the fact that the Appam was carrying 20 German prisoners captured in the Cameroons is the reason why the liner was not sent to the bottom. There has been no Change of German submarine policy since the torpedoing of the Lusitania, but the Germans are not callous enough to consign their own people to a cruel fate which they had prepared for the people of other nationalities. IDENTITY OF THE " MOEWE." SAID TO BE THE PONGA. NEW YORK, February 3. Cheers greeted the British officials as on their launch they approached the Appam to inform the captives that permission to land was granted. The German guard vainly tried to quell this outburst of joy. The captives eagerly demanded tobacco and war news. Nine boarded the launch, including Sir E. M. Merewether and six skippers of sunken vessels. Sir E. M. Merewether states that the raider was about 4000 tons. The skippers declare that she was formerly called the Ponga. They saw that name on the plate, and also on papers in the commander's cabin. They also observed that her hold was fitted out for fruit-carrying. She had a crew numbering several hundred. Her decks were strengthened for a heavy battery of four guns forward and two aft. Sir Edward Merewether states that when the raider approached the Appam, and was within 200 yards, her forward and aft railings disappeared magically, being in sections composed accordion-like of strips of steel which dropped into slots upon the pressure of a button. The deck houses collapsed, and exposed 4in or 6in guns, with the crews at their stations. "It was useless to resist," added the Governor, " especially when the German prisoners were released and armed to guard us. There were 43 armed Germans aboard." [The only vessel named the Ponga in Lloyd's Register is a Russian steamer of only 161 tons.] THE CLAN MACTAVISH. A GALLANT FIGHT. NEW YORK, February 3. The fight with the Clan Mactavish was a fine sight, though it was a one-sided affair. It lasted fully half an hour. The Clan's tiny 6-pounder continued to bark long after the German shells had set her on fire in half a dozen places. Finally the Germans discharged two torpedoes. Both struck, and the Clan Mactavish heeled over, and in a short time disappeared. Though the Clan Mactavish carried a crew not seasoned to fighting, they resisted desperately. The Taiders carried heavier guns, and consequently made short work of the sailer, which went down with her ensign flying. The Appam's passengers watched the fight at a distance of two miles. The steward of the Appam states that six of the Moewe's crew were killed in the engagement. EUROPEAN GREW SAFE. CASUALTIES AMONGST LASCARS. LONDON, February 4. (Received Feb. 4, at 11.50 p.m.) The owners of the Clan Mactavish learn officially that all the European crew are safe, and prisoners. Several Lascars were killed and four were wounded. LIEUTENANT BERG. GERMAN IMPUDENCE. NEW YORK, February 3. Lieutenant Berg is a short, stocky little fellow with a pleasant smile. He said that he would have stayed afloat much longer only the liner was short of supplies. He also says that he brought his prize into Norfolk, believing that the British warships were concentrated at New York. He also knew that there were some Germans interned at Norfolk, and were having a good time there. AN AMERICAN YARN. THE ROON AS ROVER. WASHINGTON, February 3. Rumours are current here that the German war cruiser Roon is roving the Atlantic. [The Roon was completed in 1905. She is sister ship to the Yorck (which has been sunk), of 9350 tons, 19,000 indicated horsepowor, speed 21 knots. Her armament is j four B.2in, 10 5.9 in, and 30 guns of smaller | calibre.] THE APPAM'S CAPTOR. AN AUSTRALIAN SUPPOSITION. SYDNEY, February 4. (Received Feb. 5, at 1 a.m.) Naval circles here believe that the Appam's mysterious patrol boat was the Paula, which was interned in Portuguese West Africa, and was supposed to have escaped. SIR A. M. MEREWETHER'S ACCOUNT. ' TRIBUTE TO CAPTORS' COURTESY. ALSO TO THEIR HUMANITY. LONDON, February 3. (Received Feb. 4, at 8.45 p.m.) Sir E. M. Merewether states: "The way in which the raider caught 'us was artful in the extreme. When she was sighted on the horizon she was flying the red ensign at her forepeak as a distress signal. Captain Harrison bore down, and we saw a flag at the stern, drooping. We all took it for granted that it was the Union Jack, but it was really the German Navy Ensign, as we found later, weighted in order to droop so as to deceive us. We had a 3in gun astern, but were so surprised when the raider nnmaskod that it was impossible to do anything. The captors were courteous throughout, a fact that was perhaps due to Lieutenant Barg's example. The raiders stood by for two days, when the Clan Mactaxish was sighted, hull down. We kept our course, the raider looking an inoffensive, lumbering freighter. Some sharp sailorman must have detected her identity, for a shell screamed, and the water was struck 50ft astern. Then the raider's deceptive rails fell, and the fight opened. When the Clan Mactavish disappeared, the Germans rowed to the scene with the utmost speed and picked up the badly injured. Wo could not resist the impulse to give a rousing cheer for the survivors, and even the captors smiled 'ungrudging approval." One skipper savs he is sure the raider is not the old naval Moewe that the Germans boast.

If the Appam is ordered to depart, it will be taken outside the three-mile limit and sunk.

ALL ON APPAM RELEASED,

EXCEPT PRIZE CREW,

WASHINGTON, February 3 (Received Feb. 4, at 9.50 p.m.)

The State Department has ordered the release of everybody aboard the Appam excepting the prize crew.

CREW RETAINED AS PRISONERS. NEW YORK, February 4. (Received Feb. _4, at 11.60 p.m.) The Appam, after landing her passengers, voyaged to Newport News. The Germans retained Captain Harrison and the original crew, and also the gun-layeTS, declaring that by their resistance they had forfeited the right to liberty.