SUDDEN CALL FOR WARSHIP.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1773, 11 June 1913, Page 8

SUDDEN CALL FOR WARSHIP.

UNDER, sealed orders. Orders were received on . Sunday by Carton Stopford, o£ H.M.S. Pyramus. to have everything ready to proceed to fea at immediate notice. Everything was accordingly got ready, and sealed order.? were received yesterday with a direction hat the vessel should proceed to Noumea, New Caledonia, and -tho inau-o -war was scheduled to sail from this port this. "spealci'ns to a reporter yesterday afternoon Contain Stopford stated that ho did not know why his vessel had been ordered to Noumea. His instructions were to proceed there under ordinary steam, and he was. consequently, inclined to think that the matter was not cue ot (treat urgency. Those were the instructions, however,■ and he.would receive tur-th-»r direction on reaching Noumea. It is surmised that the reason for the sudden "call for tho cruiser was that t.li" natives have been troublesome on the Island. ft was stated that a British missionary had been murdered, but 011 this point'no reliablo information was tortliC °On n a'ccount of her hurried departure, Captain Or. G. Smith, Royal haval Ju-fiis-tmr. has issued the following instruction: "H M S. Pyramus having been iinexncciPrtlv ordered away to Noumea, the R.N.I!, drills for .Tune 21 at Auckland, and Julv 1 at Wellington, liave been cancelled until further "notice."