COMPLAINT MADE BY CAPTAIN

Southland Times, Issue 24003, 19 December 1939, Page 5

COMPLAINT MADE BY CAPTAIN

STAY OF 15 DAYS DESIRED REPAIRS CONSIDERED INDISPENSABLE NEUTRALITY VIOLATED DURING BATTLE (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received December 18, 8.25 p.m.) MONTEVIDEO, December 17. A statement by the captain of the Admiral Graf Spee, Captain Hans Langsdorff, revealed that he sought to remain 15 days. He emphasized that the Uruguayan Commission was convinced that the engines and armaments were so little damaged that there was no fear that the stay would be used to reinforce their limited potentiality and might also have been convinced that repair to the hull damage was indispensable to put the ship into a condition to resist the dangers of navigation. Moreover, the damage to the galley, the functioning of which was indispensable to the life of the ship on the high seas, required repairing. Captain Langsdorff continued that Customs officers stopped shore workmen at 6 p.m. on Saturday for several hours and allowed a resumption only after the intervention of the German Legation. “The Uruguayan ruling forces made me abandon Montevideo with the ship not repaired in a manner necessary for the security of navigation,” said Captain Langsdorff. “To sally out on to the high seas would be negligently endangering the crew. I emphasize that I do not refer to the danger of enemy action, but exclusively to the general dangers of navigation.” Captain Langsdorff concluded by admitting that Uruguayan neutrality was violated in the last hours of the sea battle, but claimed that he was forced to fire at a British cruiser near Lobos Island, because the cruiser had opened fire on the Admiral Graf Spee. BRITISH NEWSPAPERS PLEASED

“MOST DRAMATIC VICTORY OF STILL YOUNG WAR”

(British Official Wireless) RUGBY, December 17. Sunday newspapers comment on Wednesday’s engagement. Tlie Observer says that the British Navy delivered a resounding stroke that “makes the whole Empire tingle with pride and satisfaction.”’ The cruisers that sent a far more powerful pocket battleship “staggering into neutral shelter have registered the most dramatic victory of a still young war.” “■There is little need to trumpet its significance,” The Observer continues. “That is done with sufficient emphasis by the on-looking world. Neutral comment has no hesitation either in proclaiming its completeness and importance or in dismissing the silly automatic lie from Berlin ascribing it to gas shells. There are events that make the perversities of propaganda merely advertise their own character.”. The Sunday Times complains of the lack of information by those who regard this as a dull war and reminds them that “there is being' enacted on the sea and in the air round these islands and on ocean routes far distant a drama that must thrill everyone who asks himself what it means. The epic story of the first great sea fight illuminates as with a flash the darkened scene on which this great drama is being enacted.”

GERMAN EXPORTS ON JAPANESE SHIP VESSEL RELEASED FROM CONTROL BASE (British Official Wireless) (Received December 18, 5.5 p.m.) RUGBY, December 17. The Ministry of Economic Warfare announces that the Japanese vessel Sanyo Maru, carrying a cargo of German exports, has been released from a contraband control base after a stay of 24 hours. Assurances previously had been given by the Japanese Government that all goods of German origin on board had been paid for before November 27. Official statements issued with the Order-in-Council of November 27 stated that exemption might be given for goods of German origin which had become neutral property before that date.