AFRICA

Taranaki Daily News, 19 February 1916, Page 5

AFRICA

ON LAKE TANGANYIKA. A BOXING DAY BATTLE. ,„ GERMAX GUNBOAT CAPTURED. Received leb. 18, 9.10 p.m. Capetown, Feb. 17. Stirring details are given of two BritIsli motor-boats gallantly fighting a German gunboat on Lake Tanganyika on Boxing Day. It is related by a participator that the British sighted a great blot on the horizon, steaming coastwise. "Off we went, though she was fivefold our combined tonnage. We were so small that she did not see us until we were four thousand yards off. She then turned on us, doubtless expecting an easy i :: ,l »* We steamed straight at her and Are at 3500 yards. "She replied, the shells falling all round us, but not hitting us. Our second shot destroyed her wireless, and the third hit her waterline. She turned and fed, but we were faster. Our fifth shot killed the captain and two of the crew, and she then hoisted the white flag. We captured her after twenty minutes' fighting. She was a powerful vessel, protected by large steel shields. We hit ten of her plates, and we were unhit, though the enemy.;' gunners were men from the Konigsberg."

AN APPARENT MISTAKE. ... SOLDIERS' PA*. Capetown, Feb. 17, General Botha declined a Labor suggestion to raise the pay of the Egyptian contingent to the level of the East African contingents, and threatened to resign if a division was forced on racial lines. Sir Thomas Sniartt, Leader of the Opposition, while disliking the decision, declined to precipitate a crisis and moved the previous question. ,