GRAF SPEE’S FATE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20124, 19 December 1939, Page 5

GRAF SPEE’S FATE

BERLIN BREVITY PUBLIC CONVINCED DEEMED BEST WAY PREPARED FOR LOSS SUPERIOR FORCES (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.i tßecd. Dec. 19, noon.) LONDON, Dec. 18. The official news agency in Beilin has announced that Herr Hitler himself gave the order to scuttle the German “pocket battleship” Graf von Spee, which had been ordered by the Uruguayan Government to leave Montevideo or be interned. The German High Command confirms the report that Herr Hitler himself ordered the scuttling of the Graf von Spee. It says that the Uruguayan Government did not allow sufficient time to make the vessel seaworthy. The leader and supreme commander ot the armed forces therefore ordered the captain to blow up and destroy .the battleship outside territorial waters. Only 11 lines recording the fact that the Graf von Spee had been blown up at Herr Hitler’s orders appeared in the first afternoon newspapers in Berlin. The brief radio and news agency announcements puzzle the Germans, who are ignorant of the significance oi the event or the world-wide interest it 'has aroused. Sufficient for Germans The fact that Herr Hitler ordered the scuttling is sufficient to convince many Germans that this was the best course. The average feeling is summed up in the remark of one German to the correspondent of the British United Press. He said: “I do not understand it, but I suppose .it is all right.” The German Government authorities refused to supplement the brevity of the news agency. The German official news agency stated that the commander scuttled the Graf von Spee after Uruguay had refused the necessary time for repairs. The agency shortly before the scutetling, issued a statement saying that her mission was fulfilled and gave the details of her captures and sinkings. It was admitted for the first time that superior Allied * forces were awaiting her departure. These reports were given prominence in the early morning editions, indicating that the German Government was preparing the people for her loss.