NEUTRAL SHIPS

Evening Star, Issue 23382, 27 September 1939, Page 7

NEUTRAL SHIPS

SINKING BY U-BOATS SWEDEN INDIGNANT (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 25. The Stockholm correspondent of 1 The. Times ’ says the Press and public arc indignant at the German sinkings. ‘ Dagensnyheter ’ says that assurances of loyal regard for friendly neighbours appear to bo void against such a background. and it urges that shipments should continue, as interruption might be cited as weakness. SUSPENSION ORDERED STOCKHOLM, September 26. The Government has ordered the suspension of all shipments of pulp, cellulose. and timber until the situation is clarified. Ships on route to England have been ordered by wireless to proceed to the nearest neutral port. RETALIATION EXPECTED WITHDRAWAL OF IRON SUPPLIES NEW YORK, September 25. The Bergen correspondent of the New York ‘ 'limes ’ says that the sinking of the Gertrud-Bratt has caused very strong reaction throughout Sweden. Sweden is expected to retaliate by withdrawing her iron ore supplies to Germany, which before the war she promised to continue. The full supplies of 10,000,000 tons a year cannot be exported, because the maximum capacity of the harbour at Oxeloesund is 2,000,000 tons and at Lnleaa 4,000,000 tons. Narvik, through .which 4,000,000 tons are exported a year, has been closed by tho British blockade The Swedish maximum export is thus 6,000,000 tons, which amount is imperative for German armaments. [The 1,510-ton Swedish steamer Ger-trud-Bratt, on her "way to England with a cargo of woodpulp, was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine 15 miles off Langesund. A Norwegian torpedo boat rescued all the 18 members of the crew. _ Witnesses said an aeroplane accompanied the U-boat.] ARMING MERCHANTMEN AUSTRALIAN MEASURES Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright MELBOURNE, September 26. “ The arming of merchant ships, both for defensive purposes and. as armed merchant cruisers, has been in progress since tho outbreak of the war,” declares an Australian Navy Board bulletin issued to-day. Tlie merchantmen will assist the Australian cruisers in the defence of trade routes, and naval ratings have already sailed overseas as gun crews in de-fensively-equipped merchant vessels.

OPENING GERMAN EYES DISTRIBUTION OF LEAFLETS RAF. DEMONSTRATES ITS POWER (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 25 Following is the translation of the latest leaflets dropped by the Royal Air Force over Germany on the night of September 24: “ To the German people. Germans, note that despite German blood, which has been shed in the Polish ■ war—First, your Government’s hope of a successful blitzkreiz (lightning war) has been destroyed by the British War Cabinet’s decision to prepare for a three years’ war. “ Secondly, the French army crossed tho frontier into Germany on September 6, or four days before the German official sources admitted it. In the west British troops are largely standing shoulder to shoulder with thqir French Allies. “ Thirdly, the British and French Fleets have swept German merchant shipping from the oceans. Therefore, your supplies of the whole range of essential war materials such as petrol, copper, nickel, rubber, cotton, wool, and fats has almost gone. You can no longer rely, as you did in the last war, upon neutral supplies because your Government cannot pay for thqm. “ Fourthly, night after night Hie British Air Force (Englische Luftwaffe) has demonstrated its power by flights far into German territory. Germans note.” GENERAL FRITSCH S DEATH THE MYSTERY DEEPENS % LONDON, September 25. Tho mystery with regard to the circumstances of General von Fritsch’s death deepens. The Swiss paper ‘ None Zurcher ’ expresses the opinion that he was not given a command, but joined as a gunner in the Twelfth Artillery Regiment. It adds that his presence at the reconnaissance operation before the Polish campaign was, if he was a general officer, contrary to the elementary rules of warfare. Therefore, it was only shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers, not at their head, that he could have fought. The official German Neiys Agency states that decrees have been issued, including public buildings, public services, and schools to observe mourning on tlie occasion of General Fritsch’s funeral. DECLARATION BY PRISONERS ASSASSINATED BY GESTAPO NEW YORK, September 25. The Warsaw radio station announces that Gestapo agents assassinated General von Fritsch, the commander of tho German Twelfth Artillery Regiment, who was reported to have been killed in action on the Warsaw front. This information comes from the depositions of German prisoners. AIR RAID SHELTERS MAGNITUDE OF BRITAIN'S PRECAUTIONS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 25. The magnitude of Britain’s effort for the protection of her population against air attack was revealed in the following recently disclosed details of one aspect of the air raid precautions. Twenty square miles of corrugated steel are being produced by steel works in strategic positions over the whole of the United Kingdom for use by 2,500,000 people in their own gardens. . The production of the first million shelters, ■which was begun in tho middle of February, was completed and shelters were delivered by the second week in September. The rate has now been increased from 1,000,000 in seven months to 1,500,000 in tho same period. It is pointed out that this vital defence measure is not hampering the supply of armaments, for shelter requirements represent only about 3] per cent, of the total production of all classes of British steel.

AMERICAN BUND LEADER CRIMINAL RECORD IN GERMANY WASHINGTON, September 26. (Received September 27, at 8 a.m.) The Senate Committee on “ UnAmerican ” Activities is seeking a ipsrjury indictment against Fritz Kuhn, leader of the German-American Bund. A publisher, Gerhardt Seger, a former member of the Reichstag, gave evidence that Kuhn had a criminal record in Germany. He was aided to Mexico by the families of Jewish friends he had robbed. GERMAN PLANE'S FLIGHT PROTEST FROM HOLLAND THE HAGUE, September 26. (Received September 27, at 8 a.m.) The Government instructed the Minister in Berlin to make a protest to the Reich Government concerning an alleged flight of a German plane over Holland on Sunday. BUSINESS PROBLEMS ADVISER TO COLONIAL SECRETARY (British Official Wirelesa.) RUGBY, September 26. (Received September 27, at 8 a.m.) The Secretary of State for the Colonies (Mr Malcolm MacDonald) has invited Mr Clifford Figg to be his honorary business adviser for the period of the war. Mr Figg will advise Mr MacDonald- on business problems created by the war in connection with colonial commodities. Mr Figg is one of the representatives of the colonial Empire on the Imperial Economic Committee and is deputy-chairman of the International Tea Committee,

BRITISH TROOPS IN FRANCE BILLETED IN VILLAGES AND FARMS UNOBTRUSIVELY DISTRIBUTED (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY September 25. _ According to “ Eye-witness,” who is attached to the British Field Force “ somewhere in France,” “ the first British guns to be sighted for an antiaircraft purpose in France are guardians of the headquarters, which are not a stone’s throw from where this is being written. So far there has not been a single alarm, and gunners have to do little but remain constantly on watch. This anti-aircraft unit was among the first British troops to reach France.” In a later account, “ Eye-witness ” reports: “ To-day I visited some re-cently-arrived British troops in their present quarters. Billeted! in little villages, on farms, and in castles, the troops are living buried unobtrusively in the depths of the French countryside. So well are they distributed that you could almost drive_ through the whole area without noticing any unusual concentration of troops. Everywhere I went men told me of the kindness of their French hosts. Equally the French pay very warm tributes to the conduct of the British. The headquarters staff is housed in schools, former convents, and other suitable buildings in sunny market towns. Officers who fought in the last war remark on the fraternising between the 'French and British troops as one of the most marked differences between 1914 and 1939.” RUSH OF RECRUITS CANADIAN AIR FORCE OTTAWA, September 26. Heavy enlistments for the Air Force have necessitated temporary suspension of recruiting. GUNFIRE AT SEA NAVAL BATTLE REPORTED MONTREAL, September 25. The official Swedish News Agency broadcast reports a naval battle off Bergen. Windows were broken by concussion on the Norwegian mainland and houses at Bergen were rocked. The inhabitants of Bergen Archipelago were awakened at daybreak by violent gunfire. They 'saw flashes of guns at sea beyond territorial limits. DENIAL BY ADMIRALTY LONDON, September 26. The Admiralty announced that no report’ has been received of a naval engagement off the Norwegian coast, as would have been the case had one occurred. w PAN-AMERICAN NEUTRALITY DISCUSSIONS AT CONFERENCE NEW YORK, September 25. The Panama City correspondent of* the ‘ New York Times ’ states that the Pan-American Neutrality Conference will urge that belligerents should refrain from hostile actions, including the search and seizure of vessels in American waters south of the Canadian border, and the proposal will provide for consultation on, means to enforce compliance by those unwilling to agree. This is likely to be the conference’s most important action. Details are still in abeyance. The Cubans, Chileans, and others have plans ranging from a three-mile limit to a limit halfway across the Atlantic and the Pacific respectively. The actual distance is unimportant, as the long-range implication is such as to upset the traditional freedom of the seas. Partisans argue that the belligerents have no right to interfere with purely inter-American shipping and must reserve searches and seizures for zones outside the lines travelled by Pan-American ships. Several of the delegations are reported to be in favour of a co-operative naval patrol of the Americas.