TORPEDOED SHIP

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20035, 6 September 1939, Page 7

TORPEDOED SHIP

‘UNPARDONABLE OUTRAGE’ BRITISH DENUNCIATION GERMAN OBLIGATIONS SUBMARINE WARFARE (Reed. Sept. 5, 3 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 4. Speaking in the House of Commons on the torpedoing of the British ship Athenia, with 1400 passengers aboard, 200 miles off the Hebrides, Mr. A. V. Alexander (Lab., Hillsborough) expressed horror, disgust and indignation of all sections of the population at an unpardonable outrage against the mercantile marine. The Lord President of the Council. Earl Stanhope, speaking in the House of Lords, said that in abrogating the Anglo-German naval treaty, Germany quite definitely left the part of the treaty relating to submarines untouched but her obligations were not rescinded by war. Cabinet had dealt with possible means of a vessel defending herself. The excuse made in the case of the Lusitania that she was carrying rifle ammunition in a hold, could not be nfade on this occasion. Thirty-four German nationals were aboard the Athenia. It is understood that 75 per cent of all passengers were women and children. Company officials' insist there were 300 Americans from Glasgow aboard. A message from Washington says that the Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, and the acting-Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Edison, conferred with President Roosevelt regarding the possibility of providing naval vessels to convoy American liners bringing Americans from Europe. It is announced that a decision has not been reached. A Berlin report says thpt an official of the German Foreign Office informed the United States Charge d’Affaires that there were no German war craft in the area.