TURKEY’S REGRET.
Turkish Coastal Tragedy Explained.
British Official Wireless. (Received July 21. 230 pm.)
RUGBY, July 23. In reply to a Parliamentary question in regard to the recent incident at Samos, when Turkish sentries fire l on a boat containing British naval officers, killing one of them. Sir John Simon said that further information indicated that the tragic occurrence was the result of a lamentable misunderstanding. The skiff in which the officers approached close to the Turkish coast was flying no flag and the officers were not in uniform. According to the statement of the Turkish Government, the Turkish coastal patrols had strict orders to summon any suspect craft to be questioned and in the present case beckoned to the boat to approach. There was reason to think that the signal was misunderstood. At any rate, when the skiff moved away the Turkish guard repeatedly fired, with the result that Surgeon-Lieutenant Robinson was killed and fell into the water, and Lieutenant Maunsell was slightly wounded. Surgeon-Lieutenant Robinson’s body had not yet been recovered. The Turkish Ambassador had expressed his Government's very sincere regret that this tragic misunderstanding had occurred, and th • Turkish Government had informed the British Ambassador that it was deeply distressed at the occurrence. A funeral ceremony had been held in Turkish territorial waters, at which there were present H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth, flying the flag of the Commander-in-Chief and Admiral of the Fleet, H.M.S. London, flying the flag of the rear-admiral commanding the First Cruiser Squadron, and H.M.S. Devonshire, in which Sur-geon-Lieutenant Robinson was serving. By order of the Turkish Government a Turkish destroyer also took part and cast a wreath into the sea with an inscription expressing the sympathy and regret of the Turkish Government. Trte Turkish Government also spontaneously expressed a desire to pay a compassionate grant to the relatives of the deceased officer.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS19340724.2.106
Bibliographic details
Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20365, 24 July 1934, Page 7
Word Count
308TURKEY’S REGRET. Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20365, 24 July 1934, Page 7
Using This Item
Star Media Company Ltd is the copyright owner for the Star (Christchurch). You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Star Media. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in