RAMMED BY A GERMAN CRUISER.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13594, 8 October 1914, Page 8

RAMMED BY A GERMAN CRUISER.

News has arrived in Sydney of the sinking of the Burns "Philp Island trading steamer Induna, which was rammed by a German warship whilo lying off Jaluit, in the Marshall Islands.- Another Island steamer, the Moresby, which arrived in Sydney last week, narrowly escaped a, similar fate. When the Induna arrived at Jaluit, which is the headquarters of a German, copra-trading company, the officers and crew had no knowledge of the outbreak of war. Ignorant of the significance of j the presence, of a German warship, the name of which has not been obtained, she steamed in to her moorings, and was allowed to take them unmolested. The officers were invited ashore and then were seized by an armed guard which had been landed from the warships and which had evidently been awaiting their arrival. Then a boat of armed marines went to the Induna and the remainder of the crew were seized and taken ashore. The warship did not waste powder and shot on the Induna. She manoeuvred round and steamed straight for the trader, and her sharp, armoured Jbows crashed into her amidships. A great gash was torn in her side, and in a few minutes she sank. News of the affair, by a mere chance, reached the Moresby while she was in the southern Gilbert Islands, through the steamer Drina. The Moresby at once cancelled her projected sailing to Jaluit, and returned with lights out. The presence of a German warship in the Marshall Islands is significant in view of the report that there are 2-5,000 tons of coal stored there for German warships. It was probably to prevent any certain news of this geting out that the Induna's crew was seized.—Auckland "Star."