PLOT TO SECURE SUBMARINE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20838, 21 September 1937, Page 7

PLOT TO SECURE SUBMARINE

RAIDS BY SPANISH REBELS RESULTS IN IMPORTANT ARRESTS United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright (Received September 20, 7.40 p.m.) BREST, September 20. A Spanish Government submarine C2, while repairing her engines at Brest harbour, the majority of the crew being ashore, was boarded by twelve men from a rowing boat. They covered the guard with automatic rifles, and their leader demanded to see the captain, Commandant Jose Ferrando, whom, he is alleged to have told, that he was commander of the Spanish submarine C 4, which at present is being repaired at Verdon, near Boredeaux. He added that he, with his crew, had gone over to the insurgents, and offered Commander Ferrando 3,000,000 pesetas to join them with his ship. Commander Ferrando refused, whereupon he and his skeleton crew were bound and gagged. The captors fruitlessly endeavoured to start the engines and had gathered on the deck to deliberate upon the position, when a sailor, belonging to C2, who had hidden in the conning tower, sounded the siren, and emptied his revolver into the group, killing one. The others escaped in a boat, dragging off Commander Ferrando and his chief engineer. They disappeared in motor cars from the quayside. The police, searching the countryside, arrested the six, including the commander of the prisoners. Papers in possession of Juan Lasharas, commander of C 4, included a letter from General Toncoso, Commandant of Irun, offering him 2.000.000 pesetas and guaranteeing him safety if he joined the Nationalists with the crew of the submarine. The man killed aboard the C2 was the Spanish Terrorist Gabaria, wanted by the police in connection with a bomb outrage at Marseilles.

Those arrested include Emmanuel Morendain, a Spaniard, who is believed to have placed a bomb in the Spanish Government ship at Bayonne in March.