SCARE AT SAMOA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 55, 8 March 1915, Page 3

SCARE AT SAMOA.

SUPPOSED GERMAN WARSHIPS.

A fortnight ago (a Fiji correspondent reports, writing on February II) there was considerable excitement at Samoa among the military authorities there, as it was believed tbat the Drosticu, with a transport of 1800 on board, was in the vicinity. Jn these islands, the story was laughed at as a war fiction, but the rumor was not entirely without grounds. The Prince Fitel Frit* is a converted armed merchantman, and she escaped from the Killklands debacle in tile company of the Dresden. A report in The Times says: There seems to be no doubt that the German plans for seizing the Falklauds as a naval base had been carefully laid, and in all probability if the arrival of the British had been delayed a day longer, they would have found the Germans in possession. Some of the prisoners stated that the Prince Eitel Fritz had 3000 troops aboard for Port Stanley after its capture." This is the troopship that was supposed to be making its way under the convoy of the Dresden to Samoa. The whole camp there was turned out, and fresh trenches were dug and other steps taken by the New Zealanders, who were determined to fight to the last.