THE SEE ADLER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17158, 10 November 1917, Page 8

THE SEE ADLER

RULES OF WAR OBSERVED. PRISONERS WELL TREATED. Additional details of the operations of the German raider See Adler show that when it started out on its cruise the lumber and cargo on board were stacked in skeleton fashion, in such a way as' to provide a camping place for the Germans who were to act as the raider's crew. It was not until after the vessel had been passed as being a neutral that any attempt was made to get rid of the deck cargo. Several days before the raider reached its ground the timber was thrown overboard, and the ship assumed the appearance of an armed merchantman. Operating in the South Pacific it sank in its early days more than £8,000,000 worth of shipping. When in the South Pacific ,the See Adler saw a mail boat which is a frequent visitor to Sydney. This was the first occasion on which a passenger ship had been seen, and the raider's commander, Count von Luckner, was in a quandary as to what he should do with it. He knew that there would be women and children on board, and that if he sank it he would have to find accommodation on his own vessel for them.

Fearing , on the one hand that his whereabouts would be known if ho sank a mailboat, which is always on a regidar track, and not wishing to harm women or children, he let the boat go unmolested. The See Adler hung about that track for a long time, and another < mail-boat was allowed to pass without interference. In fact, it was said at Pago, Pago that the raider could easily have sunk all the mailboats that are 'engaged in the trans-Paoifio service.

When his supply of shells began to run short, Count von Luckner made up his mind to burn any more wooden vessels that came along. The first vessel to be destroyed by fire was a largo American schooner which left Sydney- about three months ago for San Francisco with a full cargo of copra. This vessel was hailed, the. crew and provisions taken off, and the copra set on fire. The ship and its inflammable cargo lit up the skies for miles around, arid this alarmed von Luckner, who feared that the blaze would attract warships which might be looking for him. Americans' who reached- Pago Pago spoke highly of Count von Luckner, who, they said, had adhered strictly to the rules of warfare. In every case he took the crows off before destroying the ships, and until the raider became stranded at Mopeha everyone aboard was well fed. It was only when the raider's career ended, and it became impossiblo to get new stores, that rationing was introduced. The prisoners were to make full use of the ship foi exercise, and for what they did aboard they were paid in German gold.

MOVEMENTS OF CREW.

SAID TO BE MAKING FOE JAVA,

EAIDEES BEING. FITTED OUT.

The Sydney Sun, of October 31, saye:— "Tha members of the crew of the German raider See Adler. which sunk a number of vessels in the Pacifio, and eventually became a total loss on Mopeha Island, are still at liberty.

" Information has been brought to Sydney thnt 62 Germans from the raider have boon reported making far the Solomon or Gilbert Islands in a white-painted schooner of about 140 tons register. It is believed that the vPssel is. leaking badly. Unlc-ss the raider's crew succeeds in trapping a bigsror vessel, it is considered certain that she will finally make for Java, a Dutch possession, whrro the twn will bo interned.

"Mr W. M. MiW, vice-president of the Import and Export Comipany, of Los Angeles, who spent five months in "Rn.tavia and Singapore and othrr ports, stated, on being , intervieyp-od in San Francisco, that commerce rairlo.rs have fitted up in fho East Indies and sent to tho South Pacific Oco.in. ' I wne told by British officials at Biniraporc that they had reports that at Ipfist sh-ns had br>on fitter! out,' snid Mr MTlnf>. "The repi-csen-tatiwi of the British Government TVTe watnhinpr mfJinrs very closely, but as tho. -«snspoctcd raidore wore not boinc: pm>arod in waters controlled by the British no direct action could bo taken.'"