NEUTRAL SHIPS SUNK

Southland Times, Issue 23932, 26 September 1939, Page 7

NEUTRAL SHIPS SUNK

Nazi Action Alarms Baltic States SWEDISH THREAT TO RETALIATE - IRON ORE SUPPLIES MAY BE STOPPED (United Press Assn.—-Telegraph Copyright) LONDON, September 25. * Much alarm has been caused in Sweden and Finland by the sinking by German submarines of one Swedish and two Finnish cargo vessels which wet'e bound for Britain. It is stated in Sweden that the Swedish vessel was carrying woodpulp.

“If Germany says woodpulp is contraband,” it is stated, “she might also say butter is contraband. In any case, if Germany persists in these sinkings we might say: ‘No more iron ore for you.’ ” In Finland there is also much criticism. The Foreign Minister says that the ships may have been sunk in retaliation for seizures by Britain. RUSSIAN TROOPS ON FINNISH BORDER ACTION AGAINST SHIPPING (Received September 25, 10.10 p.m.) NEW YORK, September 25. Soviet troops on the Russo-Finnish frontier are constantly increasing, says the Moscow correspondent of The New York Times, and Finland is preparing to resist invasion. The Soviet is refusing Finnish vessels a passage through Leningrad by way of the Neva river.

A Daventry broadcast says that Russia has withdrawn the right of Finnish vessels to trade between Sweden and Finnish ports in Lake Ladoga, which lies between Finland and Russia, “because of war dangers.” The Moscow correspondent of The New York Times says that the Esthonian Foreign Minister has arrived in Moscow. The Legation maintains that the visit is commercial and has no political purpose, but the Soviet is confident it will result at least in increased Soviet influence in the Baltic. SURVIVORS TAKEN TO NEW YORK TORPEDOING OF BRITISH STEAMER (Received September 25, 8.50 p.m.) NEW YORK, September 24. The liner American Farmer brought 29 survivors from the British vessel Kafiristan, which was torpedoed on September 17. The master (Captain John Busby) reported that the submarine was sunk by bombs from an aeroplane believed to have been attached to the aircraft carrier Courageous. The aeroplane arrived unseen and machine-gunned and bombed the submarine, achieving a- direct hit VESSEL SUNK WITHOUT WARNING (Received September 25, 11.45 p.m.) LONDON, September 25. The Hazelside, of 4646 tons, was sunk without warning. Twelve of the crew of 24 are reported lost, including the captain. NAZI U-BOATS IN THE ATLANTIC 28 DAYS OF CEASELESS STRAIN (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, September 24. Twenty-eight days at sea, haunted all the time by the knowledge that every man’s hand, as well as the sea itself, is against you—that is today the situation of the German U-boats who have been on the trade routes of the Atlantic since before the declaration of war, says a statement issued by the Ministry of Information. Twenty-eight days of ceaseless strain in cramped quarters must tend to sap the morale of the young submarine crews. The available resources of the trained German submarine personnel are limited and the strain on the ■iiiiHinißiinißiiiiaiinaiiiHiiiiDiiiiißiiiMiiiiaiiiiHiiiiiuinii

U-boats’ crews must have been great for the German submarine warfare has been answered in no uncertain terms by the anti-submarine craft of the Royal Navy.

The moral effect of the depth charges on the U-boat crews is intensified by the knowledge, from bitter experience, that the Royal Navy can detect and hunt them with an efficiency never dreamt of in the last war. It is when a submarine—with the thought of vital supplies of torpedoes, fuel; food and fresh water—tries to get home that the vitality of her crew is at its lowest ebb. It is then that the U-boat faces its greatest Ordeal. Not only does the Royal Navy harass the U-boats on their hunting grounds on the ocean trade routes but also it is busily engaged in closing the route to their “bolt-holes.”

The operations of the naval patrols make the entrances? to the North Sea exceedingly hazardous to the enemy submarines while the passage homewards once in the North Sea is made more dangerous by the patrolling surface vessels and aircraft.

NO VISIT BY AUSTRALIAN WAR VETERANS

(Received September 25, 10.20 p.m.) SYDNEY, September 25. The plans for the visit of a contingent of Australian war veterans to New Zealand next April have been abandoned.