VICTIM OF THE RAIDER

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 111, 4 February 1919, Page 5

VICTIM OF THE RAIDER

WOLF

FATE OF THE MATUNGA

GERMAN BRUTALITY

Ex-Cr. G. Green,.of Fitzroy, who. was a passenger on the steamer Matunga, which was captured near the coast of New Guinea by tho German raider Wolt, and was sunk in the Pacific Oceain, returned to Melbourne by the troopship Leicestershire some days ago. Mr. Green, in the course of an interview, spoke of some of his experiences. Nearly six months on a German raider, he remarked, .was no joy ride. It was' certainly at times ex-

citing,'but such an experience once in a lifetime was quite.sufficient for anybody. "We left Sydney," he continued, on July 27, 1917, and all went well until August 6. We were expecting to. reach Ra- ] haul the following -morning, and were faking things rather easy. At 7 a.m. a few of us we're sitting on the deck of the vessel, when we saw a ship on the horizon.' It was such an unusual thing to see a ship of any size about the islands that we naturallv wondered what it wa6. We took it to be a Japanese tramp, and were rather interested in. the course it was steering. It altered its course, and; zig-zagged towards us, which made us wonder all the more. .W0.600.n.. realised who the stranger was.- ; There was a sudden flash, followed quieklv- by a report, which those on board' will hot forget in a hurry. Then there was the splash of a shell' dropping in the wuter just in front of us. .At the same time a seaplane was hovering just above us. The position was anything but,pleasant. We thought the end had come. Our captain ordered the boats out,' and we hurriedly threw on a few clothes. By the time we were on deck Again all the ship's crew I was busy with the .boats. We then saw: a motor launch approaching from the raider.: It contained a bearding officer and a prize crew. They looked like a band 'of pirates, with their laree revolvers) belts filled with .ammunition, and bayonets. We did not like the look of things at all. When 1 the boarding, officer came on board he greeted us with a cheery 'Good morning, gentlemen. , You did not expecti us,' To the Captain he said. Ton nreMate. We expected you yesterday. Don't bother about .those boats, You will not need them. We are not the barbarians you people think we are, and your papers do not epoak the truth about,the Germans.'_ . For a, time we were inclined to think that our papers had not spoken the truth about German brutality,' but, having spent a long time with them, and having seen the German in his true colours, ye know now that the'papers only spose half the truth. ,The, German? .are a brutal race even among" themselves. It would . take hours. to explain all I have gone through on the raider and in the various camps in which I have been interned; the conditions as I saw them in Germany; the revolution; the capture and- sinking of ships; the mine laying by the Wolf; and the various German photographs and . ■ books that have come into my possession. Among other treasured relics I haje - a book written by the captain of the . raider, and I 'another- by the''flying mas-, ter, giving a diagram of the route, taken. I have also two interesting postcards showing some of the prisoners in . Germany. I intend- to. have, these reproduced, so that the: people, of "Australia may see a little'of' the German intern- 1 raent camos as they. actually, existed. After the boarding officer hail'gone over the Matunga and liad his breakfast they, put the ship's captain and crew on the raider. ' The next day our turn came. Mr. W. C. M'Ennally ( and Mr. E. G. Noble, who is a brother of the famous cricketer, M. A. Noble, of Sydney, were with me, and we were sent on fo the raider. We were given hammocks, and, were told to go below. That was onel of our memorable nights. We wore in the tropics, and on going below, wo found nearly" 300 prisoners. Some hod already been'there five months. Hardly a-man had a shirt on/and' the perspiration was streaming from their bodies. Tho iron floor was. wet all over,' and there was uq inlet for fresh air at all. Hore wo. spent onr first night in the raider. They put up somo wit of a meal. We tried to get it down, but that was impossible.. Then we swung our hammocks. Not being used to hammocks, and with the smeil from the hold and "the - terrific heat, we had no sleep. •■ ; "One of my friends appeared m the ■ morning covered with prickly heat, which it took him weeks to get rid of. I protested against such treatment, and we were put back on the Matunga,-and allowed to stay there until they had taken all the coal and provisions,. out. of her. ■ They kept her until August 26, when they transferred all hands to the raider, and sank tho Matunga.- We were allowed to see the ships they captured being sunk. They put two bombs into the Matunga, and in six and a half minutes-sho had disappeared. We, then started on our way through the Pacific and Indian Oceans. ,We found that the raider had one woman on board. iShe was the wife of an American captain whose ship, the Bnluga, they had flunk. They, had taken the captain, his wife and' little" daughter ' prisoners about a. month before, and the woman was very ill. This .could hardly be wondered at, considering our own experience for the first-two months.

Awful; Mental ;Strain. "The mcniar'strain.l was awful. We wero naturally much concerned about those at home,"and' knew what their feelings must be. We practically gave up hope of ever seeing home .again,- and,, when we knew the inhuman, heartless, and dangerouß mission that the -raider was engaged in, and having concluded that our own peoplo had given us up for lost, we would have gladly welcomed death. We quite realised what it would havo meant for usMf any of our own cruisers had met tho raider. Had it been a light cruiser, the probabilities wore that the raider might have given her a bad' time, as the Wolf carried six 6-inch guns, one 8-inch gun and four torpedoes. We frequently saw them preparing for their mine-laying. It was very hard to havo to stand by and see the' preparations for 6uch dastardly and deadly deeds, and to calculate how many 'innocent men, women, and children' would be launohed into eternity by the mines. We were off Colombo on September 26 when'we saw the seaplane go for. a fly round. This was in the and when she returned the chief officer said, 'Wo will havo some frosh potatoes this afternoon,' meaning that they expected to pick up a ship. That afternoon thejr got the Japanese mail ship, the.Hitachi Maru. Sho carried about IdO pa&sengers and crew, and tho raider fired something like seventeen shells .'at her, killing some on board and wounding others. Somo of the wounded died from their injuries, and were buried at sea. They found that they had not badly damaged the Hitachi, so they ran her into some islands and patched her, intending to take her to Germany. Tho shortage of coal prevented this. So they took all the cargo they could carry, suoh as bullion/tin, copper, rubber, tea, and rice, aud 6ank her. Luck had always seemed to bo with them, but this time it was not so. A few days after they had sunk the Hitachi for want of coal they picked up tho Igotz Mendi, a Spaniard, with GSOO tons of coal on board. Out of her they filled their own bunkers, and, after putting away all their mine-laying apparatus, they started leisurely for home. Wo had'some very oxoiting experiences, but eventually got'through as far as Iceland and Greenland—quite a change of climate fnirn January in Australia. It was a wonderful sight trying to get through an ice field, but the. ice was too much for him| and he had to comb out. Here the Japanese skipper jumped overboard and was seen no more. Wfl got across to Norway and then to Germany.