ADMIRAL’S WORD WORTHLESS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21508, 22 November 1939, Page 7

ADMIRAL’S WORD WORTHLESS

British Official Wireless RUGBY, November 20. In connection with the tragic loss of the Simon Bolivar, it is being recalled that in the second week of September the Berlin correspondent of the Amsterdam newspaper “Handelsblad,’’ in an interview with the German naval chief, Grand Admiral Raeder, asked a number of questions relating to the conduct of the war at sea. Replying to an inquiry about minefields. Grand Admiral Raeder said that the laying of mines would be announced in accordance with The Hogue Convention of 19U7. The two articles in the Convention to which Grand Admiral Raeder referred and which is known as the “Convention relative to laying automatic submarine contact mines—number Vll”—run as follows, "It is forbidden to lay automatic contact mines off the coasts and ports of an enemy with the sole object of intercepting commercial navigat’on. When anchored automatic contact mines are employed, every possible precaution must be taken for the security of peaceful navigation. Belligerents undertake to provide, as far as possible, for these mines becoming harmless after a limited time has elapsed, and where mines cease to be under observation notify the “anger zon” as soon as military exigencies permit by a notice to mariners, which must also be communicated to the Governments through diplomatic channels."