ALL SAVED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 September 1939, Page 5

ALL SAVED

EXCEPT THOSE KILLED BY TORPEDO NORWEGIAN SHIP PICKS UP 800 SURVIVORS. PASSENGERS DENOUNCE GERMAN INFAMY. NEW YORK .September 4. The Belfast correspondent of the Associated Press of America says the agent for the owners of the torpedoed liner Athenia announced that all aboard were sayed except some who were killed by the explosion of the torpedo. That these were the only casualties is confirmed by the State Department in Washington. The survivors were picked up by bther vessels. The Norwegian ship Knud Nelson picked up 800 survivors and the Swedish yacht Southern Cross 200. The London correspondent of the “New York Times” points out that the Americans on the Athenia were not travelling on a British ship in violation of United States neutrality because they started the voyage homeward the day before war was declared. Moreover, the American Embassy assisted some of them to obtain passage. Torpedoing without warning and regardless of the neutral passengers onboard was even more flagrant than the sinking of the Lusitania and also more reprehensible because since the Great War Germany has subscribed to an international treaty pledging the signatories to refrain from sinking merchant ships without warning and without providing for the safety of passengers and crew, the correspondent says. 1 SOME GERMANS ABROAD (Received This Day, 9.35 a.m.) LONDON, September 4. Thirty-four German nationals were aboard the Athenia when she was torpedoed yesterday. It is understood that 75 per cent of all the passengers were women and children. The Company officials insist that there were 300 Americans from Glasgow aboard. GERMAN DENIAL CHALLENGED BY BRITISH MINISTRY. NO MINES IN AREA IN WHICH ATHENIA WAS SUNK. (Received This Day, 9 a.m.) NEW YORK, September 4. The London representative of the Associated Press of America says that in response to the German denial of responsibility the Ministry of Information announced that there were no mines where the Athenia was sunk. It was officially denied from Berlin that the Athenia was torpedoed by a German submarine and it was suggested that she had been mined. The British Admiralty has pointed out that there were no mines in the area in which the Athenia was sunk.

Owned by the Donaldson Atlantic Line. Ltd, the liner Athenia was of 13.465 tons gross, and was built in 1923 by Fairfield and Co, Ltd, Glasgow. With the Letitia she maintained a service between Glasgow and New York.