NAZIS’ FRIGHTFUL CRIME-CHILD REFUGEE SHIP SUNK

Evening Star, Issue 23688, 23 September 1940, Page 5

NAZIS’ FRIGHTFUL CRIME-CHILD REFUGEE SHIP SUNK

BRUTAL ACT APPALS WORLD LONDON, September 22. (Received September 23, at 1.45 p.m.) Eighty-three child evacuees, aged between 5 to 16, were drowned when a ship going to Canada from Britain was torpedoed on September 17 and sank in 20 minutes in Mid-Atlantic. Two hundred and ninety-four of the total complement of 406 perished, including Colonel J. Baldwin-Webb, M.P. * With this new act of frightfulness the Nazis sent 294 adults and children to their deaths, and the wave of horror it created has spread through all civilised countries. British warships speeding to the scene rescued 113 survivors and brought them back to England. There was a high sea running at the time of this cold-blooded mass murder. The attack was made without warning. Only seven of the 90 children who were going to Canada to start new lives were saved. The captain, doctor, and chief nurse went down with the vessel, as did seven of the nine adults acting as official escorts to the children. Since the evacuation of children overseas some 2,714 have been safely transported from England. Mr G. H. Shakespeare, M.P., chairman of the Children's Reception Committee, has despatched a moving letter of condolence to the bereaved parents.