EOSS OF LAUNCH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 154, 2 July 1934, Page 9

EOSS OF LAUNCH

INQUEST ON VICTIMS. [ Per Press Association. ] WELLINGTON, June 30A nine months’ tragedy was recalled to-day when the inquest was held into the deaths of four occupants of the launch Santina, -which was lost on September 25. The victims were fishermen named Costa, aged 50, Panozzoo, aged 42, Armitrano, aged 40, all married with children, and a boy named Alley, aged 15. The bodies were never found and the Solicitor-General regarded an inquest as unnecessary, but later it was found that there was serious difficult in affecting registration of death, and in order to overcome this it was decided that an inquest be held. The .finding was of drowning by reason of loss of the boat during the height of a gale. During the hearing it was stated that fishing launches at Island Bay were not subjected to marine survey, and the coroner assured Alley, father of the boy, that he would take steps to place the facts before Hip authorities. Besides the Vengcur there wore ten other submarines moored off the base, and another ten wore lying elsewhere in (he dockyard. The very latest arrival was La Sultane, a coastal boat of 565 tons, completed onlv a few months since, and distinguished by the peculiar shape of her conning tower. Yet, in spite of her fresh paint and gleaming brightwork, she looked no smarter than boats which have been in service for several years and cruised thousands of miles. Much misunderstanding may bo avoided in future if the outer world will realise that her submarine flotilla is not merely an integral, but a highly important componnent of France’s system of naval defence. Forty years of unremitting effort and the expenditure of vast treasure, and still more valuable human lives, have gone to the creation of this powerful weapon, now, perhaps for the first time, as technically perfect as it is possible to be. So far as numbers are concerned, the strength of the Frencih submarine forces is liable to be exaggerated. The grand total of 109 boats listed in the British official return includes manycraft which are obsolete or on the verge of becoming ineffective. But even when these antiques are deducted, the front-line flotilla remains the most formidable in existence. French naval officers, courteous though they be, find it difficult to conceal their indignation at the suggestion that the submarine is inherently a sisinster and inhuman weapon, since to be terrible it must be used illegally. If that were true, why, they ask, should Great Britain, the United States, and every other Power, great and small, continue to build submarines?