BELATED PRECAUTIONS.
ROUNDING UP ALIENS; (Rec. December 30, 9 p.m.) London, December 30. v'The military authorities havo ordered all Germans and Austrians, including those naturalised, also British-bom.des-cendants, including tho second generation, from Sunderland and the coast towns near tho Tyne. From north to south, the Yorkshire; coast is infested with agents of the enemy: of that there can bo no doubt <says the '"Daily Mail"). Remember what lies behind this stretch of English coast; the rich towns, the great'industrial centres; consider the sweoping bays, the gaps and inlets which line the 6hore; and the Teason U not far to seek.The activity cf the Kaiser's spies in the, Filey district, whore ~ important jnovoments of the military have been followed by flashing lights hear vital areas, is as nothing to that whioh prevails in Robin Hood's Bay, fifteen miles farther north. Here the Revenscar, tho highest point on the Yorkshire coast, forms tho southern point of this famous bay. From this, 700 foot and moro Ibovo sea level, lights which can be ■Been thirty mdes across the ocean flash •out night after night. There is no question of imagination " (passage deleted by tho Coilsor). The signallers must know that they take ' their lives in their hands. Yet tho lights-still flash. Forty-eight hours ago a light shot out across Robin Hood's Bay. A' patrol challenged, and followed his hail with a bullet. What happened nobody knows, but the light went out\and no trace ' of lamp or human being could bo found. A night or two ago an armed constable saw a powerful light in the beacon which, a little inland, f rises oven than Ravbnscar itself.' Cautious'ly he approached through tho bracken, the light still beaming steadily across the hills towards the 6ea; but before ' ho could reach the 'spot it had disappeared, and again no trace of man or woman could be found. • ' " ■
Some of tho watchers, tell of strange, lights at sea, lights which ,come inshore and wait till nearly dawn, and then disappear. "Always when this happens," says one of the guards, "a light Is shone on tho cliffs—lights which we have tried to trace and failed."
It is ridiculous to suggest that the cliff lights are those of iarmors tending their flocks. Thoy are a hundred times more powerful than any hand-lamp, and thoy do not move about. They are . signals by a standing light, which last for an agreed period and then go out • to appear -again in the same position for a longer or shorter period. Whatever part of the east coast is visited it is always' in this -way that tie signals are stated to be given. No one over suggests /that the Morse code is used. Here, m the North Riding, comes , confirmation unmistakable and' clear of , the 6pics' use «f motor-cars. A young '' farmer of Ravensoar tells how a few mornings ago he found the track of a • > 'motor-car running through a gate into, ' a cliff field, a field which'gives a clear view across the sea from a point at the height of Robin Hood's Bay. That track, he says, was not there the previous night, a night on which lights were reported shining their message to watchers on the sea. Most significant of all is the statement of a thoroughly reliable villager of Cloughtou, a hamlet on' the road to Ravenscar. He tells how he saw a ' oar on tho Ringing' Kell, which corres- ' ponds with the description of that for which the Norfolk police are searching. Ho added that the car he saw had a large squaro box fitted at the ,roar. So has the car wanted in Norfolk, but the fact has not been published before who tho spice arc, and how they como and - ■ go is a mystery; but that'they are steadily at work conveying messoges to ' the enemy no one questions. Military officers aro as emphatic as civilians. "I liavo myself seen lights," 'says one officer, "and have not tho faintest doubt that they are signals;' ' and to us they can bear only one mes- -~-. sago, and that is that thoso who signal must be hunted down aud treated as the law provides." It is a matter of supreme importance i to the country. That is tie spirit actuating everyone on the Yorkshire coast, and it will go hardly with the signaller ivho is caught.
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Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2346, 31 December 1914, Page 6
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726BELATED PRECAUTIONS. Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2346, 31 December 1914, Page 6
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