HOW WE ESCAPED

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 204, 5 February 1915, Page 6

HOW WE ESCAPED

■WHAT THE KUDO'S CREW WIAXTED. l\ very interesting light has been cast upon the attitude of the commanders of the iScharnhorst and (ineisenau during cruising in the southern Pacilie by a letter which an officer of the former ship forwarded to a friend in America. ''You cannot know what a time I have had," he writes. "We have had no holiday, and we have lived through nights of nightmare. We live in a horror of great speeding Japanese battleships and •John Bull warships. Doubtless l somti British captains have been feeling pretty scared. eW did not sink any Australian ships or raid their ports, and why? Because we could not do so safely. J think our commanders were very careful of powder and shot, and many of the men were grumbling because there was nothing doing. Of course, our object was to concentrate the whole ileofe somewhere, and you will recognise that that was done well. Several times we could have created some sensations for the people of Sydney, and a good many passengers would have kept to their homes had they known how close the Scharnhorst was going to pass their liner. Everyone in the ship wanted a raid on Suva or one of the New Zealand ports, but always there was .the fear of the Australian battleship Australia and of Japanese battleships, which we expected everywhere. We got a good deal of news of sorts ) and should have liked to have joined the Enulen. We all felt sick at seeing the British flag flying at Samoa, though we hoped to find a small cruiser lying at Apia What dreadful weeks they were in tile Pacific. Day after day we steamed along not knowing when wu shoulu run up against an enemy fleet. When we were in the region of Australia w e hoped to have got among the troopships, but things were altogether too warm for us, What is going to happen to us now I can't tell. We arc going into the Atlantic, I think, but we can hardly hope to get far away. Anyhow, there will be no running away."