MYSTERY SHIPS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 21014, 18 April 1938, Page 7

MYSTERY SHIPS

Reports of Coastguards Definitely Identified as Warships SENSATION IN PHILIPPINE WATERS United Press Assoclrtion—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright MANILA, April 15. The Collector of Customs at Davao, in a radio message, declared that the authorities here state that the 21 mysterious vessels anchored in Davao harbour are warships.” “It has been established beyond doubt that the warships entered Davao waters,” says the message. A statement from the Mayor (Mr C. D. Mac Gee), a retired United States army officer, states: “I saw about 17 warships in column formation. I could identify the wireless but I could not identify the flags or numerals of any of the ships. The mother ship moved up from the rear to the front of the column. She had a low flat deck with a slightly elevated poop as the only superstructure suggesting that it might have been an aeroplane-carrier, although my assistant said she could have been a collier.” Other eye-witnesses said that they saw the ships manoeuvring on Sunday night displaying vari-coloured lights. The Manila army authorities are awaiting the return of two aeroplanes which have been sent out to investigate. The Manila correspondent of the United Press reported on Wednesday last that part of the United States Asiatic Fleet, which is at present on manoeuvres in the China Sea, may be ordered to Davao, in the Philippine Islands, to investigate the presence of twenty-two mysterious vessels resembling Japanese destroyers. The Customs Collector at Davao said that the flotilla comprised either destroyers or submarines. They did not display their colours and they repeatedly ignored requests made by wireless as to their identity. The United States fleet headquarters, however, ridiculed the idea that they would be Japanese warcraft. The general opinion is that the vessels are fishing craft, which ran into the Guff of Davao to escape stormy weather. Unofficial speculation mentions the possibility of a gesture in answer to the recently reported visit of an American cruiser to one of the Japanese mandated islands in the mid-Pacific during manoeuvres. Whether they were American or foreign, they operated so secretly that they slipped inside Admiral Yarnell’s sphere of defence without detection. It is suggested that this might be a stratagem devised by the War Board to dramatise the islands’ vulnerability.