MARINES GUARD ALTMARCK

Southland Times, Issue 24055, 20 February 1940, Page 5

MARINES GUARD ALTMARCK

The Altmarck remains in Josing fiord with her stern aground under a guard of Norwegian marines. It is not known how many members of the crew are aboard. Some have gone to a neighbouring town. A doctor visited the ship. One hundred and fifty prisoners from the Altmarck have left the hospital at Leith. Most entrained for their homes in Tynesdale, Yorkshire and London.

A Paris message says military authorities contend that the Altmarck violated international law in concealing the fact that there were British prisoners aboard. Moreover, she was armed with guns.

A message from Copenhagen says the Press emphasizes the deliberateness of Britain’s action, based on the Admiralty and Government decisions, and asks where the neutrals stand now. The Sunday Dispatch in an editorial says a Government cannot keep its waters neutral if it affords shelter to enemy ships of war. “Britain must and will act in defence of its own rights. It is a stern, vigorous, necessary decision. Neutrals must no longer humour and placate the Nazis at our expense.” It is reported from Berlin that the Altmarck casualties are seven dead, one missing and believed drowned, and five seriously hurt. A British Official Wireless message says that considerable surprise is felt

in informed London quarters at the German claim that the Altmarck is “an unarmed merchant ship.” While a search of Lloyds Register of Merchant Shipping reveals no trace of a ship 01 this name, in a list of coast-to-ship stations published in June 1939, by the International Union of Telegraphic and Wireless Communications, of Berne, a German vessel named the Altmarck appears marked with the crossed swords sign and as having the call signal “D.T.A.K.” allotted her. GERMAN WARSHIP The International Union, which is sponsored by the International Postal Union, obtains information for the compilation of the list from the Government departments of the countries concerned. Crossed swords is the conventional sign indicating a ship so marked to be a warship. These two facts are felt to show that at some date before June 1939, the German Government informed the International Union that the Altmarck was a warship, giving this information for the purpose of enabling the union to include accurate details in the published list. It is, therefore, difficult to see by what metamorphosis the warship of last June has become the “innocent merchantman” of last night, especially as the call signs used by the Altmarck and intercepted by the British warships were D.T.A.K.—the call signal of the German warship Altmarck.