ON THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1917, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

THE MOEWE'S DEPREDATIONS THE FIGHT WITH THE OTAKI. Beuter vService. 'W I Received April 2, 9 p.m. Amsterdam, April 1. The commander of the Moewe, interviewed in Berlin, stated he converted one of the captured vessels into an auxiliary cruiser and re-named her the Geyer. She sank a number of vessels, but had to be sunk herself owing to her useless engines. The captain furnished further particulars of the Otaki's resistance, previously cabled. The fight lasted twenty minutes. The Otaki was hit by 25 shells. Both vessels caught alight. The Moewe developed a troublesome leak, and the Are was go that most of the crew were (burned, an under officer and six men succumbing thereto. Many of the Otaki's men were badly wounded before they discontinued the fight.

THE ATLANTIC RAIDER. SURVIVORS' STATEMENT.' Rio de Janeiro, April 1. Survivors state that'tliey encountered the raider in mid-Atlantic in a direct line from, the mouth of the Amazon. The commander said that only the Kaiser and the Crown IPrince knew of the expedition. The cargoes lost were largely sugar and nitrates.

GERMAN RAIDER'S VICTIMS,

Rio de Janiero, April 1. The French steamer Cambronne has arrived with two .hundred members of the trews of eleven Allied vessels that were sunk hy a German raider in the vicinity of Trinidad. They say that many of those ahoard the destroyed vessels perished. The refugees are mostly Italian, French and English. The raider is described as a sailor equipped with two gasoline motors. She flies the Norwegian flag and pretends she wishes to speak to a victim, and when the vessel stops the f raider hoists the German flag and opens a continuous Are until surrender, when she removes the crew and sinks the ship. The raider is named the Secadler, and is commanded by Count Aknor, who has 04 in the crew. The ship is armed with two guns, sixteen machine guns, and equipped with eighteen months' supplies of munitions, oil and other things. She is supposed to have left Germany on December 22(, submarines escorting her to Iceland. She sank the British steamer* Glaysroyre (3288 tons), Lady Island (4500 tons) and Rongoth (5500 tons), also the sailer Pinmars, the small Canadian trader iPerce, the French vessels Antonina (4000 tons), Laroche Foucaul (2220 tons), Charles Gounod (2199 tons) and Duplex (2206 tons), all westward of Maderia, between January 3 5.

THIRTY MORE CUNARDERS,

Received April 2, 8 p.m. Times Service. London, April 1. The Cunard Company has ordered the construction of thirty, steamers in America.

The following declaration was issued by the British Foreign Office on January 31: —The German Government announce that "they have conclusive proof that in several instances enemy hospital ships have been misused for the transport of munitions and troops." They also state that they have placed these proofs, through diplomatic channels, before the British and French Governments and have at the same time declared that traffic of hospital ships on the military routes for the forces fighting in France and Belgium within a line drawn through Flamborough Head and Terschelling (Holland) on the one hand, and from Ushant to Land's End on the other, will no longer be tolerated. His Majesty's Government have received no such communication through diplomatic circles, or otherwise, from the German Government, as is alleged, and they most emphatically deny that the British hospital ships have been used for the transport of troops or munitions, or in any way contrary to the Hague Convention for the adaptation of the principles of the Geneva Convention to maritime war. Under the Convention belligerents have the right to search hospital ships, and the German Government have therefore an obvious remedy in case of suspicion—a remedy which they have never utilised. From the German Government's statement that hospital ships will no longer be tolerated within the limits mentioned only one conclusion can be drawn, namely, that it is the intention of the German Government to add other and yet more unspeakable crimes against law and humanity to the long list which disgraces their record. In these circumstances his Majesty's Government have decided that if the threat is carried out reprisals will immediately be taken by the British authorities concerned.