NAVAL MATTERS

Southland Times, Issue 17660, 18 February 1916, Page 5

NAVAL MATTERS

BRITISH CRUISERS ACTIVE LOOKING FOR THE MQEWE IDENTITY OF THE ARABIS ADMITTED NOT TO BE A CRUISER (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, February IS. A German wireless message, quoting the Danish newspaper Politiken, states that a Norwegian ship met during the week a large English fleet within the zone between the Dogger Bank and the Norweigian coast, consisting chiefly of squadrons of light cruisers. Norwegians also met English cruisers in the Atlantic, doubtless chasing the Moewe. The wireless now admits that the Arabis was not a cruiser, but a special vessel constructed for mining and air defence services. ( Her crew numbered 78, and she had a speed of 16 knots. This sudden conversion is amusing, as in a few hours the alien wireless has been claiming that a second cruiser was torpedoed, the claim being based on the fact that of the British Admiralty’s admission that a mine-sweeper was sunk. The wireless further states that the surgeon and three of the Arabis’ crew died after being rescued, owing to their long immersion.

[On the 11th the enemy claimed to have put several cruisers to flight at the Dogger Bank, and to have sunk one, the Arabis. The British Admiralty staled that the "cruisers” were minesweepers, and the Germans have now modified their claim.]