MYSTERY OF A SHIP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 233, 1 October 1929, Page 11

MYSTERY OF A SHIP

BRANDED AS A PIRATE. Mystery has surrounded the status of the German steamship Falke, which had been branded as a “pirate” by the Venezuelan Government, with the consequent penalties for the crew, on account of the insurgent raid recently carried at Cumana. The Falke was anchored in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and officials there were puzzled as how she should be treated. The crew was divided, the officers denouncing Captain Tipplitt, who, they contended, led them into trouble without their knowledge. They consulted the German Consul at Port of Spain to determine what action to take against the captain. According to the officers’ story they left Hamburg in ballast for Gdnynia, Poland, where they took aboard 125 Venezuelan exiles, headed by General Delago Chalbaud and his son. Thence they proceeded to Cumana, Venezuela, near which place they tools aboard 200 Other insurgents and a large quantity of ammunition. They contend they were forced to land this with the rebels in the abortive attempt to seize Cumana, in the process of which the ves- » sei’s third officer was killed at the helm. When the Government troops routed the insurgents Chalbaud - s son, with a small group, succeeded in regaining the Falke, which took them to Grenada. The’ Venezuelan Government has de-

nounced the Falko as a pirate vessel, asking all Governments to proceed against her on that status as a result of her participation in the attack on .Cumana. The fact that the Falke was apparently obtained for the express purpose of raiding Cumana puts a different complexion on the first reports,, which told of the seizure of the vessel by inurgents near Cumana, and its subsequent use in the raid. To whom does the rebel ship Falke

belong, is a question that has been asked in Berlin, The German authorities are still in the dark as to the details of her adventurous voyage. The German Government is particularly desirous of bring to book any Germans

who had a hand in the buccaneering adventure. It is stated that the Venezuelan Government has not protested to the German Government, as stated In some reports. Before the Falke left Gdnynia, in Poland, the German Communist press wrote sensational stories of how the ship —which it declared belonged to the North Deutsche Lloyd—contained “an enormous shipment of guns and ma-chine-gun munitions’’ destined to arm China. On inquiry at the time a correspondent was told by official sources that the Falke had a tonnage of only 900 tons and was unsuitable for munition transport, and also that the ship was on its way to London.

The Socialist newspaper Vorwaerts says it considers that the Venezuelan W rebels must have been supported by Foreign capitalist circles which had an iterest in a coup d’etat in Venezuela |o as to obtain from the now Government concessions and business rights.