GERMAN SAILORS ARRESTED

Southland Times, Issue 24004, 20 December 1939, Page 7

GERMAN SAILORS ARRESTED

URUGUAYAN POLICE TAKE ACTION CHARGE OF BLOWING UP SHIP (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received December 19, 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, December 18. The Uruguayan Harbour Police arrested four of die Admiral Graf Spee’s seamen aboard the Tacoma and charged them with blowing up the ship. The arrested seamen were in a launch when the Admiral Graf Spee exploded. The German High Command in Berlin confirms the report that Herr Hitler himself ordered the scuttling of the Admiral Graf Spee. It says; “The Uruguayan Government did not allow sufficient time to make the vessel seaworthy. The Leader and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, therefore, ordered the captain to blow up and destroy the battleship outside territorial waters.” The Berlin radio announces that the Government has handed a sharp protest to Uruguay against the flagrant breach of international law in failing to allow the Admiral Graf Spee adequate time for repairs. Only 11 lines were used to record the fact that the Admiral Graf Spee was blown up at Herr Hitler s orders, in the first Berlin afternoon newspapers today. The brief radio News Agency announcements puzzle the Germans, who are ignorant of the significance of the event or the world-wide interest in it. The fact that Herr Hitler ordered the scuttling is sufficient to convince many Germans that this was the best course. The average feeling is summed up in the remark of one German to a British United Press correspondent: “I do not understand it, but I suppose its all right.” ... , . The Government authorities retuse to supplement the News Agency’s brevity. “Nothing can be said,” it is stated. ORDERS FROM HITLER The Amsterdam correspondent of Reuters Agency says that Herr Hitler ordered the scuttling of the Admiral Graf Spee only after many hours of argument with the naval chiefs ana technical experts, who insisted that the vessel must not fall into British hands as pocket battleships have an unusually high proportion of specially designed instruments and apparatus. New secret equipment was added this sumBerlin Press proclaims that the end of the Admiral Graf Spee is the beginning of new blows against England. “The blackmailer Churchill will learn that he did a dis-service to England by bringing pressure to bear on Uruguay to send out the Admiral Graf Spee before she was navigable. Uruguay’s unfriendly action was a gross breach of international law under intimidation from Britain.” A spokesman on behalf of the French Navy said: “Germany knows that she will lose, otherwise she would have allowed the Admiral Graf Spee to be interned and would have claimed her later. The slight damage she inflicted and her inglorious end absolutely endorse British and French policy in deciding not to build similar ships.” “Incredible!” exclaimed a group of Italian naval men at midnight when they heard the news of the scuttling of the Admiral Graf Spee, says a message from Rome. The scuttling of the vessel is regarded as proof that she was more badly damaged than Berlin admitted. Naval circles in Rome consider that it would have been better to have allowed the internment of the vessel rather than condemn a fine ship to ignominious suicide without a fight. The Buenos Aires correspondent of the American Associated Press says that the crew of the Admiral Graf Spee arrived aboard two tug-boats and one barge. Captain Hans Langsdorff was among the arrivals. The Maritime Police quickly surrounded the vessels and isolated the members of the crew.

A member of the German Legation

said that there were 1000 arrivals, including the Tacoma’s group. The British Legation in Montevideo announced that the Exeter has reached Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands,