FILTHY WARSHIPS.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1920, Page 7

FILTHY WARSHIPS.

GERMAN TROPHIES IN NEW YORK. The ex-German warships recently taken to New York as trophies intended for exhibition purposes at various American ports, will remain in New York harbor until the naval experts have made a thorough inspection, and then be towed out to sea to be used as targets for the guns of the Atlantic fleet. The changed plans, it is announced, are due to vandalism in looting and wrecking the engines and controls of the ships by the German crews who brought them to Seapa Flow. To make them temporarily seaworthy would cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the Secretary of the Navy (Hi-. Daniels) says he does not feel justified in making costly repairs, when under the terms of the Treaty the vessels must be destroyed within a year. In his report to Mr. Daniels, Captain Hellweg, of the United States Navy, who brought, the ships across the Atlantic, says their gutted condition cannot be exaggerated. What had not been stolen was wrecked, and the vandalism indicated very careful preparation awl ''the usual thoroughness of the Huus in destruction." "All four vessels," he adds, "were in as filthy a condition as the houses in France which the Iluns were forced to evacuate."