WAS IT LIES.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 October 1927, Page 2

WAS IT LIES.

STKIN’S STORY QUESTIONED. (Australian A N.Z. Cable Association.) SYDNEY. Oct. 21. In reference to Stein's statement (cabled on the IStb) in reference to flying over Sydney from the Wolf, during the war, Roy Alexander, who was a prisoner aboard the German raid Wolf, liis ship having been captured off Kermailcc Islands in May. • 1917. writes to the press challenging Stein to prove lie ever flew anywhere near Sydney, or that the Wolf ever steamed along the New South Wales coast. He says:—“After sinking the steamer Wairuna and Winslow at Reminders .the Wolf made a quick dash to North Cape. New Zealand, where she laid a minefield of about twenty-live mines. She then steamed for the western entrance of Cook Strait where she laid a similar field. From there she steamed direct to 'Gabo and steamed inshore to lay mines in the steamer tracks off the coast. That night off Gobo. was the only occasion the Wolf sighted the New South Wales coastline. In the midst of her mine-laying she suddenly sighted an approaching steamer and the commander immediately put out to sea, like a frightened rat, steaming well out into the open ocean and certainly not pausing for Stein s so-called naval investigations.”

Alexander adds: —“] can also definitely state Stein's aeroplane was dismantled and stowed away during tile entire period the \\ olf was in the Tasman Sea. The captain never used the plane when in crowded waters, as the sight of it on deck would negative the disguise of the Wolf as a harmless merchant vessel.” Ho characterised Stein’s story about sparing Sydney as “fairly bristling with tpical bombastic inaccuracies.”