The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3rd, 1916. THE BREMEN CAPTURED.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 203, 3 October 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3rd, 1916. THE BREMEN CAPTURED.

(With which is incorporated The Tal bnpo Post and Waimarino News.)

The latest and greatest of German inventions that was to bring salvation to Germany has proved a failure. The The Bremen has been captured by British sailors; it has been dragged up from the depths of the North Sea in a British net, and towed —cargo, correspondence and crew —to a Scottish port. One can well imagine the chagrin, disappointment and anger witn which Germany received the news last Sunday, that the second of her wonderful blockade breakers was then safely in Scotland; the almost uncontrollable rage Germans would feel on knowing that England was in possesaion of a hugely valuable cargo of dyestuffs, and that Britis-h statesmen were already studying the confidential documents never intended for Britisn eyes. The Bremen has been dragged out of the water like a common herring, and is now in British possession, to be disposed of at Britain's will. The cherished German dream ane? open boast of blockade breaking have given place to melancholy, depression, dejection and mental agony. The feelings of Alfred Lohmann, the inventor,

the Deutsche Ozean Khederei(Jompany, as well as bankers, and the Kaiser -himself is far easier to imagine than to describe. German conduct of the war, and the methods she ha» evolved for the destruction or subjugation of her enemies all seem to have been fordoomed to failure. The Hun superman has been easily beaten at his own game in every case in which Britain thought it worth while; his inventions have been trapped like rats, or been ignominiously dragged up like -herrings in a net. So much was expected of these submarine merchantmen, the first of which, the Deutschland, did manage to get to America with a cargo of dyestuffs, but from the details of her voyage as given by her captain, Paul Koenig, it is obvious that there was the very narrowest margin on more than one occasion, between freedom and capture. It has been stated that this vessel did arrive at Hamburg with a cargo of rubber and nickel from America, but there has been a great shortage of confirmatory evidence of this. Of course, a Britisher cannot very wen have first knowledge that the Deutschland did not return, but it is noteworthy that for the accomplishment of a perilous feat that has in it a thrill of romance that would appeal to the whole world as one of the greatest triumphs in war inventions, the jubilations of Germany were not of the usual quantity or intensity. There is yet a strong probability that the Deutschland has not returned to Germany, and we know that her sister vessel, the Bremen, was not allowed to get very far out of enemy waters before she became British property. These submarines are 300 feet long and 30 feet wide, with a displacement of 2000 tons, so they are by no means toys. They were built with a firm conviction that the British blockade could be laughed at, but as the American journalist says, nothing more vivid could be drawn from Captain Koenig than the detailing of those times when "we just sank," which is sufficient indication that even boasting Captain Koenig had the conviction that his exploit was fringing on the miraculous. We do not know where the Deutschland is; we hear of a third vessel, the Kaiser, that is to be despatched, but nothing about the Deut schland; the feebleness of jubilations and the general absence of German boast and gusto throughout the country and countries of German allies at the accomplishment of so wonderful and perilous a feat is presumptive evidence that the Deutschland is as likely to be in her last long home as to be snugly in harbour at Hamburg. Her captain would have been a hero, to have been feted and banquetecr, but nothing has since been heard of him. It matters little now where Koenig's vessel is, we know that the Bremen is safe in British hands, and that whici Germany was looking to as a means of feeding her famishing soldiery and people is no more able to cope with the intelligence and lnven : tive genius of Britain than anything Germany has hitherto pinned her faitn to. No longer will Germany boast that Great Britain cannct hinder boats like the Bremen to go and come as

they please; that these boats will carry across the Atlantic the mails and save them from British interruption; that the key of Bremen has opened the ocean gates that Britain tried to shut up on Germany and on the world, the gates that could never be shut up again; that the freedom of the oceans and equal rights of all nations will be guaranteed by Germany's victory in the struggle for her existence. All these gloatings have departed with one fell swoop of a Britisn submarine net, and the hope of a starving people has departed. Famished Germans would have hailed with delirious joy the success of a scheme that would bring them food, but that joy is nowhere evident in the German, therefore the only sane conclusion to be drawn is that Germans are overwhelmed with a spirit of dejection at the, to them, awfulness of the submarine merchantman failure. It la doubtful whether "The Kaiser" will ever be put to risk the fate of the Bremen.

A black and white fox terrier, with a long tail, has been lost and is advertised for

An excited caller at this office this morning wanted to know whether it was true that the troopship carrying the 15th Reinforcements had been sunk. He said that a person knowing he had relatives aboard the troopship had stated that it was a fact that the vessel had been sunk. One hardly knows how to characterise such meanspirited callousness, such dastardly mischief-making and pain-causing nuis ances. T-his office strongly urged the man, who is a well known, highly respected business man, to go straight away to the police, so that the wilful, lying scandalmonger might learn by experience that the law provides punishment for such as he. As a matter of fact, the troopship carrying the loth Reinforcements has arrived safely at her destination.