HOPE NOW ABANDONED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20051, 25 September 1939, Page 7

HOPE NOW ABANDONED

CREW OF ROYAL SCEPTRE VICTIM OF A U-BOAT (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, Sept. 23. A bulletin issued by the Ministry of Information announces that hope mist be abandoned for the Royal Sceptre, of 4853 tons, which was sunk by a U-boat on September G, 300 miles to the westward of Ushant. The vessel sent an SOS indicating that she was being gunned and that the crew had been ordered to leave the ship as she was sinking; Signals were received on September 6 that Danish and Norwegian boats searcnecf the locality, but found no traces of the boats. It was hoped that the crew had been picked up by some fishing boats or by a ship without radio, but since nothing more has been heard for nearly three weeks, it is feared that the officers and crew ire lost —victims of the U-boat warfare being waged in contravention of .he protocol signed by Germany in November, 1936. Paragraph four of he London Naval Treaty makes it Near that no warship, submarine or otherwise, is justified in sinking a merchant ship unless the crew have been placed in safety and that open boats cannot be considered a place of safety unless in calm weather and close to land or a rescuing ship.