WONDERFUL HEROISM.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 August 1919, Page 5

WONDERFUL HEROISM.

BY MERCANTILE FLEET. i THE HEROIC WORK OP LIEUT.COMMANDER SANDERS. LORD JELLICOE'S TRIBUTE, By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. A civic lniK'heou was tendered to Viscount Jellieoe and officers of the New Zealand to-day. Major Luke presided. Among the guests were the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, and members of the Cabinet. Lord Jellieoe, replying to the toast of his health, gave some interesting details concerning those who had been in command of H.M.S. New Zealand from time to time. First there was Sir Lionel Halsey, than whom there was no greater admirer of this country, including the New Zealanders themselves. The successor to Admiral Halsey was Captain John Green, now rear-admiral, well known on the China Station; while next came Captain (now Admiral) Richard Webb. Admiral Webb, the speaker reminded those present, was responsible for the orders which had directed merchant ships in the early days of the war. Next in succession was Captain Donaldson, to whom fell the lot of escorting to their final home the German high seas fleet on the occasion of their ignominious surrender, a surrender from which it would never recover. Lord Jellieoe paid tribute to the mercantile marine for the great part it had played in the war. The men of the mercantile marine, lie said, will go down to history in clouds of glory. There had been one - officer from the mercantile marine from New Zealand who had been a shining example—Lieut.-Commander Sanders. That officer had been in command of a decoy ship, which, after only being in commission for one week, was attacked by" an enemy submarine. "When the German captain of that submarine was brought to London after having been defeated by LieutenantCommander Sanders and his officers and crew of men from the mercantile marine, he was interrogated as usual by the naval intelligence officers, and what we got out of him was that he could not have believed any navy in the world could produce men with such a spirit of discipline as to stand the shelling he had given The Prize (LieutenantCommander Sanders' ship) without making a sign of returning fire until the submarine was so close that the latter was in a hopeless position." Incidentally Lord Jellieoe mentioned as an instance of the wonderful construction of the German submarine the one dealt with by Lieut-Commander Sanders. Although its conning tqwer and gun's were blown away, and its captain himself was under the impression it had sunk, it managed to reach home.