ESCAPE OF SAMPANS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19135, 2 October 1936, Page 4

ESCAPE OF SAMPANS

TOW ROPE SEVERED FIJI COAST INCIDENT (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. A report of fi Japanese sampan being taken in tow on the Fijian coast for examination at Suva was 'brought back to Auckland by officers of the sloop H.M.S. Wellington, which returned from its annual winter cruise to the islands last night. The sampan, how r ever, cut the tow "rope and slipped off into the darkness. This is the second time within recent months that reports of Japanese vessels off Fiji have been made, the other occasion being when a district officer, accompanied by a small party off H.M.S. Dunedin, chased a sampan in the Government ship Pioneer. According to Commander Hall, the second sampan, which may have been that which .was previously pursued, went ashore at the mouth of the Labasa River on Septem'br 23.' Suva was informed and the Pioneer left at ouce, but she was recalled before proceeding very far, and the chase was taken up' by the trading schooner Helena with a district officer Aboard. The sampan was discovered and was towed off. Then she was taken in tow and the schooner started back for Suva, but during the night the Japanese cut the tow rope and escaped. Nothing more had been heard of her when the Wellington left Tonga last Sunday for Auckland.

Another report of Japanese sampans was brought back by the officers of H.M.S. Leith, which arrived earlier in the day after completing her winter cruise, which included the islands in the south-western Pacific. At Noumea, they said, they had seen three captured sampans. They had been told that a seaplane had been sent off in pursuit of the sampans which were suspected of poaching trochus shell. When the plane came up with the Japanese vessels, engine trouble developed and the plane was forced to land alongside the sampans. After the Japanese had refused to surrender, the Frenchmen asked for a tow back to Noumea on the condition that the Japanese would be allowed to go. This was agreed to, and the seaplane was taken back, but on their arrival at New Caledonia, the sampans' crews were arrested.