MENACE TO SHIPPING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13602, 6 February 1915, Page 3

MENACE TO SHIPPING.

A RUTHLESS ENEMY,

THREATS BY THE GERMAN ADMIRALTY.

CALCULATED AND ORGANISED BARBABISM.

(Press Assn.— By Telegraph— Copyright.)

LONDON, Feb. 5. The Gei'man Admiralty warns neutral countries that after February 18 every hostile merchant ship in British seas or the English Channel will be destroyed, regardless of danger to crew or passengers.

The German Admiralty further warns neutrals not to entrust passengers, crews, or goods on British vessels. Neutral ships will incur danger owing to Britain's misuse of neutral flags. It was ordered on January 31 that the accidents ,of naval -warfare cannot always be avoided. Traffic around the .Shetlands, the east part of the North Sea, and a strip of at least 30 knots along the coast of Holland will not be endangered. A Foreign Office announcement, issued prior to 'the receipt of the German Admiralty's statement, says : "The German decree makes it evident that all grain and flour passes to the control of the Government. If the Wilhehnina is intercepted, she will therefore be submitted to a Prize Court in order to examine the new. situation. The owners of the Wilhelmina will be indemnified for any delay, and shippers of cargo will be compensated. It is untrite that Britain is seizing other conaignmerits.' "No- decision has been reached, but it is the apparent intention of Germany to sink merchant ships without bringing them to port or providing for the accommodation of crews or lobs of civil life. The attempt to torpedo the hospital ship Asturias has seriously raised the question of whether Britain should not retaliate against German trade, taking care not to inflict loss on neutral ships which sailed before the warning was given."

(London Times and Sydney Sun Services

LONDON, Feb. 5. The Times, in a leader, says : "In order to attain her ends, Germany' did not hesitate to violate every law of God and man, and is guilty of calculated and organised barbarism. The history of many centuries does not afford a complete parallel. Her war methods have brought misery to millions and have not brought a decisive success, while the prospect of irretrievable failure stares her in the face. Her consciousness of "her ultimate impotence has led her to foment hei? people to -hatred of England, whom she blames for the collapse of her plans. Germany exaggerates our power iii the real cause of the failure of her plans. '

(Press Assn.— By Telegraph—Copyright.)

(Received Feb. 6, 8.30 a.m.) The Times, in a leader on the- Wilheln^ina's shipment of foodstuffs, asks how, when the German Government proclaimed a /monopoly in foodstuffs, can civilian foodstuffs be distinguished from military? Are Germany's enemies to stand by while she is supplying tiie armed forces from neutral ports?

(Received February 6, 8.45 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. 5. The newspapers regard Germany's blockade of the coasts 'as sure to be farcical, also as a fantastic attempt at prospective retaliation for Britain preventing the import of cornstuffs into Germany because of the latter's State control of foodstuffs, and because a blockade would be invalid unless effective. .