SURVIVORS FROM RAIDERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24505, 14 January 1941, Page 6

SURVIVORS FROM RAIDERS

PARTY OF THIRTY ARRIVAL AT AUCKLAND SOME TAKEN TO HOSPITAL DETAILS OF HOLMWOOD , ATTACK <Pe* United Press Assijciation) AUCKLAND. Jan. 13. Thirty men, women' and, children, who were among the; victiips of Hhe raiders, arrived by the Mariposa‘from Sydney this morning. - Most, of theih appeared to have quite recovered from their ordeal, but here and there were signs of suffering and some of the stu> ? vivors were immediately taken to the hospital. >■ Before leaving the. vessel, the victims of the raiders were' interviewed .by various officials, including detectives Lengthy statements will be taken from them later. All were entertained by the Mayor, Sir Ernest Davis, at lunch at the Wayerley Hotel., ““ Treatment by Captors •The officers and crew ot the steamer Holmwocd must be treated with every respect. Breaches of this rule will be severely dealt with." This notice in German on the raider under the name of Manyo Maru was translated by a member of the Holmwood’s crew. ••••. Members of the Holmwood’s crew said that the rule was strictly adhered to, and in many cases friendships sprang up between captors and captives. ■ The second officer. Mr A. A. Clark, said that, caught in a trap formed by three enemy raiders, the Holmwood had no chance. “ One of the raiders made s flag signal, and then came a Morse signal to stop," said Mr Clark, who was on watch at the time. “ It was said later that two shots were fired across our bows* buf I did not see them. 1 did hear a ‘ plcp ’ in the seai," he added Sheep Taken for Food After the officers and crew and pas-, sengers were taken off, Mr Clark said, the Germans took off some of the live sheep for food, but the majority of 1400 were- left to drown, also a polo pony. The Germans opened fire on the struggling stock with machineguns. It was humane to end their misery. Then the enemy ship steamed north with two other enemy vessels. CHILD CAPTIVES HOLMWOOD PASSENGERS NOT AFFECTED BY EXPERIENCES KINDNESS OF GERMAN SAILORS <Pw United Press Association) * AUCKLAND, Jan. 13. Sound asleep on board the Holmwood when she came under the menade of the raiders’ guns, two little girls, daughters of Mr and Mrs R. C. irnens, of Chatham Islands, went • happily through an ordeal that proved a’heavy strain on their parents and the other aduUliand returned to Auckland today dn.- the Mariposa. A picture of childism;;health, ,Te ■ Miria, aged 11, romping gaily with Wendy, aged two, interrupted her play for a: moment to confess that she had learned a. few words of German on board the Tokyo Maru and obligingly posed to have her photograph taken, 1 “ <“ “ They treated the whole .thing as a big joke, and are certainly "none the worse for their . adventures;’ said Mr Idiens, who was returning to settle in New Zealand with his -wife and family when the :HolmwoddLwas intercepted. “I thihk'they ; acttially enjoyed' the experience.'altnbughthefood supplied om, the Tokyo Maru was not suitable for Women or children. “The kiddies fortunately saw no harrowing sights, although we were on board the raider when the Rangitane was attacked,?“he' continued,-. “We were all sent below and shut Hn when the Rangitane wag' attacked.' add although ; the children were frightened by the- gunfire they soon forgot it and Mttled down to enjoy themselves. "When-the Holmwood was stopped we wete first of all taken on board the Manyo Maru, and on her the children went with'their mother, and I was with the men passengers. I had access, to the; children, however and later when we • Were transferred to the Tokyo Maru we were together. “ The Germans, were, kind to the children and neither,;.; of the girls seemed' .at all afraid.; The sailors played games with, them and gave them books and dolls, of which they had a good supply on board.” WELL TREATED A WOMAN’S NARRATIVE DISCOMFORTS OF CAPTIVITY (Special ■ro Daily ITmes) AUCKLAND, Jan. 13. “A steward told us that we had been •topped by three raiders, but I was too seasick to be bothered.” said Miss C. E. Hough, of Chatham Islands, one of the Holmwpod’s passengers who returned by the Mariposa. Miss Hough, whose parents live, at the Chathams. was making her Second trip to New Zealand when the raiders caught the Holmwood and was'delighted to have reached the Dominion' after several weeks of unexpected travel; “ I was taken over in a boat to one of the raiders and later was joined by the rest of the women and children from the Holmwood.” Miss Hough •aid. “We did not see the Holmwood sunk, although we heard the gunfire. We were well-treated on board but at first we had little fresh air. being allowed on deck for only two hours a day. The food was very good however. even if some of the meat we had did probably come from the Holmwood. which was carrying sheep. In addition, we sometimes had tinned meats and good bread and butter. “We were taken later to the Tokyo Maru and had much more freedom on board her. We were alloived on deck“freely, being sent'down below only when the third ship, which we called the Narvik, was round. On these occasions we were sent down promptly and the shutters were put up to prevent us from seeing her " The food on the -Tokyo Maru was not as good as on the Manyo Maru,” she said. “We often had rice for breakfast. macaroni for dinner in the middle of the day. and .two tiny sandwishes. one of white bread; and one of black for tea. The Germans, some.of whom spoke broken English, were mostly fairly young men. They behaved quite well toward us during the four weeks we were on the two ships. In that time we saw land often, but never knew what it was. though the Germans had told us on the first ship that we Would be put ashore in three or four “peeks’ time.” ~

LACK OF SPACE PRISONS FOR CAPTIVES CONDITIONS ON SHIPS “ MANY DISTORTED STORIES ” (Per United Press Association) AUCKLAND, Jan. 13. The third engineer of the Holmwood, Mr G.;R; Clayton, ?aid that 26 officers ,were kept in a room 15 feet by 10 feet. -On 1 days when the raiders “ made, a , kill ” the captives were not allowed On deck. , The women folk were treated very well, he said When they were first taken on board, they .were given a room to themselves, and fresh milk and white bread .was provided for the children. They were afterwards with their husbands, transferred to a supply ship so that they would be out of any fighting that ‘ might take place. Mr Clayton, who is married, and ■whose wife lives in Dunedin, said the raider took plenty of time to' ransack the Holmwood From the Rangitane, on the other hand, they got away in great haste because, they knew she had sent out a wireless signal. Compressed Foodstuffs There was, he said, sufficient food on the Manyo Maru, on which he had been a prisoner but it was all of one class, consisting mostly of beans and compressed foodstuffs. • >, “ We struck a decent skipper.'' said Mr Clayton, speaking of the conditions on board the Manyo Maru “He tried to act the gentleman after he had got us on goard, and he made things much more pleasant than they might have been. Two or three of the officers spoke English, one perfectly and we had no difficulty in making ourselves understood. We had only Jo ask for something—a toothbrush or toothpaste--and it was given us. In the tropics they gave us sun hats and singlets ” There was a shortage of provisions l on Emirau Island for the first two days after they landed. Mr Clayton said, but they were able to get immediately tea with tinned milk in it, which was a great treat,, They also had fresh meat and ship’s biscuits. After the second day there was plenty, for the mission launch, which had taken to a neighbouring island news of the landing of, the captives, brought back with it five tons of foodstuffs No Real Discomfort “ There have been a lot of distorted stories in the Australian papers, many of which are completely untrue,” said Ordinary;Seaman S. G. Waterhouse, of the Holmwood. “Although 57 of us were confined ill a compartment about 46ft by 25ft there was no real discomfort, . The quarters hdd obviously been specially prepared, food was plentiful and well-cdoked, and every Saturday night we were given tea with a dash of rum. Cigarettes and cards were provided. “ Many of the German officers and crew were formerly merchant seamen.” he added, “and they treated us like gentlemen. Every respect was paid to,the Women on board and neither the German,: sailors nor the English prisoners were allowed near their quarters.” ■, NO ILL-TREATMENT INVERCARGILL MAN’S STORY OVERCROWDING ON SHIPS . “ Those who say that we were, illtreated should be severely dealt with," said Mr Cleland Millar, who was one Of the passengers on board the Rangitane, to a Daily Times reporter in a brief interview given during a short stay at'Dunedin on his return home to Invercargill yesterday afternoon. “ You can imagine” he added, “what would happen oh a.-ship that had to carry 700 more than her ordinary complement. There was some over-crowding, but as far as brutal treatment is concerned. that is a lot of nonsense.”

Mr Millar was proceeding Home to join the fleet air arm. He attributed his release on Emirau Island partly to the. fact that he was not in uniform. Also he had had to sign a paper giving an assurance that he would riot take up arms again. • Conditions on Emirau ' “ On Emirau Island,’- he said, “ we hail plenty of coconuts, but we were disappointed that there were not the bananas and pineapples we expected. I had only a pair of shorts when we landed. Some of us slept ony the ground, while others had huts It was a matter of how one adapted oneself to one’s surroundings; some had only coconuts to supplement their rations, but others gathered shell-fish and made some good soup. “The women had the worst ot it when the Rangitane was attacked." he said. “When our quarters were hit, we were out of them. We had some difficulty with the drinking water on board the prison ship as they did not distil it fast enough. As a result it ‘was sometimes ralher salty, but we had sufficient. They provided us with hews bulletins in English, but they needed some deciphering. The source of the hews was given .in large type, but the remainder of the "matter was not graced by a capital letter. It simply,ran dn.. ; - y'.' y.y , Too'Many Prisoners “ The chief problem about, the ship in which we wbre imprisoned- seemed to be that the Germans, could not cope with tile number of prisoners they had They gave us.a little music, from ‘pickups’ occasionally but just enough in sav that we' had had some." Mr Millar praised the assistance given by 1 the Australian Red Cross organisation. They equipped all the meh survivors with shoes anc( a complete sports suit—and the price was not considered, The New Zealand Government had sent to each £lO for clothes and £5 for pocket money. PENSION PAYMENTS CREW OF THE HOLMWOOD ACCUMULATED ; ALLOWANCES (Per United Press Association) ■ AUCKLAND, Jan. .13. Among the most welcome visitors on board the Mariposa to-day, at least so far as the members of the crew of the Holmwood were concerned, were representatives of the War Pensions Department, who were well supplied with money Acting under the provisions of the War Pensions and Allowances (Mercantile Marine) Act, 1940, which was invoked for the first time, they handed over the accumulated allowances to the men, adding substantially to the joy of their homecoming-, v - * , .. The Holmwood was the first ship on New Zealand articles to fall victim to a raider, arid the members of her crew, a total of 17 men, thus became eligible for the benefits under the Act which provides for the payment of pensions in the event of death, disablement or detention by the enemy. Officially presuming thal the ships personnel were detai.-ed on board the raider, the Government had already instructed that detention allowances should be paid to the wives and other

dependents of the crew, Part of the allowance had been withheld, however, for payment to the men themselves on their return. Arrangements were also made to provide for a further period pending the-men being re-engaged in suitable employment. RANGITANE SURVIVORS TWO RETURN BY MARIPOSA (Special to Daily Times) AUCKLAND. Jan. 13. Of the survivors of the Rangitane which was destroyed by German raiders. two returned by the Mariposa, Miss F, Macdonald and Miss M. R. Black, the latter from Christchurch. They were cabin mates at the time of the disaster. Miss Black went on by the Mariposa to Los Angeles, but Miss Macdonald, who is a visitor from England. is remaining in New Zealand.