"WILSON—AVENGE OUR DEAD!"

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 243, 19 January 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

"WILSON—AVENGE OUR DEAD!"

Tho followin" article, reprinted from tie London " Weekly Despatch," was written bv one Samuel Devlin, "once of the I'.S. Navy, now rescued from the Mairira."* The latter vcurfl. cf tins, owned by the Donaldson ol G.a,gow line, was torpwloed without warning off the Irish coast cn or abotuOetobee 30th. There were a niimlxV oi Americans on board, ''cattlemen, as one cable described them, six being kilted and two injured. i According to cab'es recently the "Daily Chronicles New lorn correspondent states that at a recent Cabinet meeting President Wilson announced that if the evidence in the Marina and similar ca>es was proved to he correct, lie' was in favour of an immediate severance ol relations with Germany.

Somewhere Safe from I Boats, Saturday

six minutes. I know that ,was the timo because one of my pardnirs took out his watch to see how long tlee second tcrpedi would take to finish her. The ce.pt ain and the men still in the ship, including the six Americans, ran aft directly after the second explosion. It was so unexpected and took thorn so completely by surprise that they had only time to tl.row out one life-raft from the top of the aft deck-homo. But they coiud not get to the raft. We saw one man climbing down the bcat-fal.s to reach it, but it was then that the ship sank, and lie and the raft and the captain and all tho others were pulled under by the suction. . • We never saw the raft again, or the captain, or the first mate, or the second mate—or any of the others who were in that ship when she was again struck, again without warning, Mr. President, just to show, 1 suppose, hew easy it is to defy tlie United States of America.

Mr. President Wilson,—l do not wish to sav aiivthiug that might embarrass you 'in the midst of the perplexities that surround you. But I am an American citizen, who, with others, has just been landed at a p'aco safe from C boats, and who has just had a very narrow escape from death by murder on the high seas. We have seen six of our pardners, a.so Americans, whose lives and liberties you have sworn to protect, go to their deaths without warnnig and without a chance to save themselves, through the deliberate act of a foreign Power, v. ho has wilfully broken a solemn promise made to you not to sink a merchant ship without warning and without ensuring the safety of the lives of the people on board. We want to know what you are go inn; to do about it; we want to know what you aro going to do to these people who make a promise about a matter of lite anil death and then go on killing Americans as if they had never promised anything? Vou keep telling us that you will not liava American lives imperilled, and that you will not suffer American honour to bo outraged. Well, there were six Americans who went clown in the merchant ship Marina, and there are two otlier Americans lying in hospital un.vb'e to move because cf their sufferings in an open boat on a stormy sea. Lest you should have any doubts about this case 1 and two of my pardners havo put down this account of what happened, and wliat we think about it, in tho hope tlie.t before next Tuesday (the date of tho Presidential election) what we have written down will have l>ce.n brought before your notice and that of the people whose totitidence you say you deserve.

It was getting dark, and it was very cold and wet. Some of us were wet through and were scarcely decently covered. ° Did the submarine stop to see that we were safe and comfortable und tow us on our way? Well, sh? came to the surf.ice so that the conningtowor was above the water and we tould soo two men in it. They followed, not our beat, but the other boat, evidently lioeause they had espied the uniform of the chief engineer and thought it might be the captain. Probably they wanted the captain's papers and the captain himself, but they seemed to be satisfied that it was not him and then they left r.s. . . They left us in these open boats in n stormy sea. In our boat we were packel so tight that we dared not move. Our cnanccs of being picked up within the next twenty-four hours were very poor. All night we keot within a mile of where the ship went down, in tho hoj>e of coming across some of the men stili alive in the water, but it was no

We left last Thursday week in the s.s. Marina for America. The slip was in balki'St —empty, and we had a stormy trip from the start, tho boat pitching in very heavy seas. So rough was it that in one day we did not make more than twenty miles. The weather was lil'.o this for the first two days, an 1 on the third day—-Saturday—it was as bad as ever. Huge seas swept over tho deck and there were fierce rainstorms. Tho lifeboats, as always in the danger zone in these days, were swung out ready to be lowered on the instant.

For twentv-seven and a half hours, from :U"> on the Saturday afternoon until 7-1 •"> on Sunday we were tossed about .among the waves, frozen to the bone, and in imminent danger of tlie boats capsizing. 1 do not think we shoidT have lived through another night of it. Our only shelter was a sail-cloth, and we shipped a good deal of water. Eaily en Sunday morning we sighted a l>oat, but we could not attract her .attention.

It was r.t half-past three in the afternoon that we heard that there was to le our fir.-t lifeboat driU since we sailed, at four o'clock. Wb were down in our bunks talking together and getting ready for the drill. I rcmemcor saying, " It's a wonder they did not wait until we got out of the danger zone altogether before ordering boat drill." The words were hardly out of my mouth iieicre there was a sensation of a tremendous impact of something with tlw ship. It was not so much like a shell cr a torpedo exploding as like tho .iirsting of a boiler, 'lhat was what we thought it was for the moment, and 1 learned afterwards that it wns in a boiler that a torpedo exploded.

Finally, just as we were lieginning to despair, we were picked up by a li-tro' boat and treated most kindly. 1 " « • »

, That. Mr. President, is our story, and we don't think the foreign Power who made you that specious promise could explain it away, even if they wanted to. You see. when some of us iiy good luck did manage to get away, th-o submarine made sure of killing the rest. If that was not murder of the memoers oi a neutral nation as coldblooded and deliberate as that cf the Lusitania, we give it upWe are only horsemen, bivt we aro Americans, and as much entitled to protection as anybody in the liuted States.. t Then* r.re my pardners, Albert T. Wentz, of Sheridan. Wyoming, nnd Luther -1. Clarkes, cf Richmond, Virginia, and tlie othera. They haw lost all their belongings. And there's myslf Samuel Devlin, of Providence, Rhode Island, who has served eight >ears in ti:e United States Navy, in a latitleshi.p, in a submarine, and in a torpedo-boat destroyer. Down with the jSlarina went my good-conduct medal and my discharge piper. We expect to go to soa again in a few days '.o t y t<> g t home. What we | wans to know i, are you going to secure a guarantee 1 for our safety on this occasion, or have we got to sail knowing that at any moment we may be | sent to the bottom without any warniifr?

We slipped on our life-belts, which we keep very handy, and ,tise as pil- - an 1 running on deck we heard that we had been attacked by a submarine. The Marina had l>eon struck amidships, but there was only a heavy list to starboard, and she was settling down on a fairly even ke.V. It looked as if she would remain in this position for an hour or more before going down, and there was not the least excitement and very little hurry. As we sat in the boats Captain Browne shouted: " Hang round tlie ship. She won't go clown for another hour." Just about that time I noticed the periscope of a submarine. We wore then to stanhoard and 30 feet from tho whip. Tho periscope was another 50 foot away, and it moved slowly rounrt the bow to the port side, where a second torpedo was fired. I h:s timo tho Marina almost immediately broke into halves, the bow and the stern rising toward tho centre and remaining in that curious position for

Are you to say before next that you can't help it and that tho United States is powerless to protect its own citizens or— —?

Grouser's instructions. Transferred to a new beat, he continued his ••mine" fi-hing tor a time, and then the boat went eft 011 "private business"—which appears to he a kindly term for attempting malicious mischief on lboats. Later on lie- wa> wounded in th? head and arms, mainly, according to his account, because the captain would not t ike Ins advice. It is true th.u captains do not usually confer with their stokers, but the Grouser fe't that ho was iw> ordinary stoker. It is pleasing to know that this particular captain. in spit-.' of liis unwillingness to accept advice, writes of the Grouser: •'We'll look after his bread and butter. He has earned it right enough."

THE DEAF MUTE. Ho was deaf and dumb. Everyone oouctyced thought that tie was a fraud, but still he remained deal and dumb. In the ceils, a little adroit stupidity <m the part'of the warder, whoso inability to understand that the .signs of the prisoner indicated a desire for rood, worked a miracle, and the duniO spake. Nine times convicted of burglary, hp vas a moral mystery. He did not smoke, he did not dunk, he did not bet. Burglary was his only vice, a debased kind of hobby hi prison l o was capable, intelligMt. industrious, and obedient; but out of it he was a Imrgiar. He was clever, and had a good education, know more than ono language, and was an expert penman. He went off to sea, did well for a year, and disappeared at Colombo. In Mesopotamia, a poor Bedouin, deaf and dumb, and not at all keen-wit-ted, wandered open-mouthed l-etwecn the trenches of the Turks. He provided great and welcome amusement. The guns, tho trenches, the dug-outs filled him with childish wonder and fear. The officers—German and Turkishdiscussed their plans openly while he was hanging around witli idiotic hesitancy. Here and there he wandered, and ono day sonic Britishers found him knocking about noar their front lines. They brought him in. and as lie seemed on the verge of starvation they fed •aim. After he had satisfied his appetite, lie spat on the ground in contempt of the infidel, and went mooning about, until lie disappeared somewhere about headquarters. Our Burglar had arrived '

His extraordinary success as a spy continued for a consid'.'ra-b.'n time, until the foe became suspicious. They fired off rifles at his ear, and stood him •near a big gun in action til* blood ran from his ears. Yes, he was deaf. Was ho dumb? They tore the nails from his fingers and put hot irons against th.< tender part of his flesh. No voico resulted. His character was vindicated, but his health was gone. His left arm had to be amputated, and he was but the wreck of a man.

His tormentors suffered vengeance. H.> was able to reveal, as before, their positions, their intentions, and their strength. Then, with the good wishes and gratitude of his country, he went off to his home in an Eastern port. The I'uTglar had made good. THE QUARTET PARTY. The four had no chance to begin with. Corn among thieves, dragged up anyhow. they soon found their way to jail, i Efforts for their redemption succeeded for a time, and then came reaction with a return to crime. The Army swal'owod them up in diu season, and they arrived in France. One of them went out after four German snipers, shot thi'en nf them, and had a wrestling bout with the fourth. He came off the victor with a broken wrist and a stab in the side as mementoes. The former rogue was now a D.C.M. Another of the four was promoted sergeant, and, all getting leave together, they succeeded in putting through an enjoyable furlough entirely on tl.v "water waggon." Wh it may eventually happen only God can tell, but so far they have made good in spite of their original and heavy handicap. Britain feels proud cf her soldiers, and it is possible that the marvellous tal.'s that are to tell cf the waking up of the man within the breast of every criminal may yet enable the State to discover a better solution of the prol>lem than is to be found in tl:e iail and the convict prison. AM honour to these -men who have in truth come out "of the miry clay:" have given their service, thc-ir health, and not a few their lives, a-s freely and honourably as have the men who enlisted with untarnished reputations. No one can look at these historhs without feeling that there is nioro truth than most are willing to admit in Ui.» great protest against all pessimism—"God made man upright."