SINKING OF THE EMDEN

Otago Witness, Issue 3859, 28 February 1928, Page 51

SINKING OF THE EMDEN

BOOK BY GERMAN PRINCE. TYPICAL TEUTONIC LOGIC. LONDON, February 23. Prince Franz Joseph, second torpedo officer on the Emden, has published a book entitled “ The Emden,” containing allegations which the Daily Express characterises as bitter and libellous, and asks why the Nurse Cavell picture should be banned when the British are asked to read such libels. With regard to the sinking of the German ship, the Prince denies that v’on Muller surrendered, .though be admits the Emden’s ensign was hauled down and the. white flag run up. With Teutonic logic he explains“ One can only sur-. render with weapons, and as the ship was a wreck, and all the weapons were destroyed, there could be no talk of surrender. The flag was hauled down because the ship was a wreck, and had no longer any right to fly it, and further bloodshed was not justifiable. While running upon the reef tbe flag was forgotten, and it did not oceur to anyone that the flag at the maintop of the wreck would be taken as a reason for resuming the bombardment.” Detailing his imprisonment at Malta, the Prince alleges that the crew of the Breslau were cheated out of their food allowance by the British soldiers, and their money remittances were falsified to the disadvantage of the Germans. He says that 150 men of the Emden, with 850 others, spent three hopeless years in Fort Salvatore, shut in by high W’alls and without room to exercise, enduring a martyrdom to which a number of cases of madness or attempted suicide bear witness. Tbe Prince repeats the old story that he saw ammunition boxes being loaded into hospital ships. A note in the book states that von Muller was a foe so worthy that the British Government wished to honour him after the war. There were, however, difficulties in the way. The English publisher explains that the proposed honour was the Distinguished Service Order. The Daily Chronicle drew the Admiralty’s attention to the statement, and an Admiralty official said that the amazing statement cannot be credited, while the Foreign Office gives it a categorical denial.