ACTION PRAISED BY PRESS

Southland Times, Issue 24056, 21 February 1940, Page 7

ACTION PRAISED BY PRESS

SEQUEL TO NAVAL VICTORY GERMANS RAIL AT BRITAIN N.Z. SAILOR DESCRIBES IMPRISONMENT (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received February 20, 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, February 19. The whole of the daily Press displays news of the rescue of the 300 British merchant seamen from the German vessel Altmarck with great prominence and comments enthusiastically on the Navy’s action, which is heralded as an eminently satisfactory sequel to the victory of the River Plate, which resulted in the scuttling of the Altmarck’s mother ship, the Admiral Graf Spee. The Manchester Guardian, says that the skill and speed and conclusiveness of the deed and the circumstances of the unhappy seamen—one _ moment crowded like slaves in a prison ship, humiliated and ill fed and told they were to be marched through Berlin in triumphant procession, and next sailing home safe in a British warship —have moved the people even more than the Admiral Graf Spee victory. LEGAL ASPECT OF INCIDENT Referring to the legal aspect of the Altmarck case, The Times says: International law does not permit a belligerent to transport his prisoners of war through the territory of a neutral He cannot march them across neutral land, nor can he convey them into or through neutral territorial waters. If a ship carrying prisoners is taken into such waters the law requires that the prisoners be immediately released. The first duty to release them rests upon their captors, as was clearly recognized by Captain Hans Langsdorf of the Admiral Graf Spee, who set free his prisoners as soon as he entered Montevideo harbour.” A message from Copenhagen says that in spite of the paper shortage, several extra pages are allotted in German newspapers to the Altmarck story. The Press continues to use violent language against Britain. Conferences continue at the Chancellery with the heads of the armed forces. The Altmarck’s first officer alleges that the prisoners and members of the boarding party stabbed and tore pic-

tures of Herr Hitler in the messrooms. The captain denies the reports of illtreatment of the prisoners. He declares that many of the prisoners thanked him before leaving. The Altmarck incident continues to dominate the Press of Norway and also other neutral newspapers. In Holland there is little sympathy for Norway, but the Press condemns the British action as a breach of neutral rights. A former prisoner in the Altmarck, R. Pittam, aged 39, of Okaihau, who was a trimmer in the Taiaroa, said when he arrived in London: “I am going to take the first ship to New Zealand and join up with the boys. It was hell in the Altmarck. With 47 of us in a small hold the amosphere was terrible. Once we did not see daylight for three weeks. The food was very poor. “The captain was a fiend and would have scuttled the ship if the Navy had seen the Altmarck at sea. Then we would have been drowned like rats in a trap. The Norwegians must have heard the noise we made at Bergen.” Pittam had a night’s sleep in hospital at Leith and received clothes and money. “I say God bless the British Navy,” he added.