GUILT DENIED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 November 1939, Page 5

GUILT DENIED

J SINKING OF' THE SIMON NAZI ABSURDITIES RESPONSIBILITY PLACED ON MR CHURCHILL. EVIDENCE OF INTERNAL EXPLOSION. Bl’ Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright LONDON, November 20. | It is now believed there were three explosions in lhe Simon Bolivar. one of which was 'in lhe (“iig'ine-i'ooni. This accords with the engineer's statement that one explosion seemed Io blow the side of the ship outward, for which reason members of the crew pre sinned a tiine-homb to be re sponsible. The theory of an internal explosion is also supported by an officer's description of a violent discharge of scalding steam and oil which drenched passengers in the cabins and saloons. The casualty list gives 262 survivors eight dead and 230 missing. The Berlin correspondent of tin British United Press says lhat all tin morning newspapers heatedly deni that Germany is guilty of the. sinking of the Simon Bolivar.

The “Voeukischer Beobachter" says the suspicious haste with which Mr Winston Churchill unashamedly accused Germany clearly reveals that it was an English mine. Following the sinking of the Simon Bolivar the only official German comment was that it could not possibly have been a German mine but the German Press has now found a culprit. said a Daventry message lasi night. By yesterday the German Press had made up its mind that someone was responsible, and had with unanimity declared that the only person who could have been - responsible was Mr Churchill.

GERMAN TACTICS DISREGARD OF THE RULES OF WARFARE. PATHETIC DETAILS OF LINER TRAGEDY. Further details of the latest German campaign of frightfulness at sea were described in another Daventry broadcast. Yesterday's British newspapers carried pathetic pictures of the survivors of the Netherlands liner, Simon Bolivar. Ono picture shewed two six-months-old children, both of whom were unclaimed. Another showed a Dutch mother and two of her children who were saved from the wreck, but the remaining three children were missing. One survivor, a boy of 11 years, does not know that his mother and father are missing. Several babies who were

first thought to bo coloured were subsequently found to bo white when bathed in petrol to remove the oil which covered them. The German Press is trying to shift the blame to British mines, but the absurdity of this suggestion is exposed by the obvious question, why would Britain lay mines in the path of hetown and neutral shipping. The fact that the mines were in the channel which was regularly swept by British minesweepers was a clear answer to the German charge. It is pointed out that Germany followed the same tactics during the last war. and that Germany at present has two submarine minelayers each capable of laying 48 mines. Pointed reference is made to the fact that the mines were sown over a zig-zag course. No country would be likely to adopt such a practice in its own shipping walers, and it is concluded that the German submarine mine-layers have adopted a favourite trick of following minesweepers and laying mines in the very area just swept. Further evidence of the brutality of the German tactics is disclosed by the harrowing story revealed by 12 sailors from a Norwegian tanker which was torpedoed last. week, and who have just been landed in England. According to the survivors. .17 of the crew of the tanker were adrift in a boat for 55 hours before they were sighted by a British plane. Twice the boat capsized. On the first occasion they lost all their food; on the second , occasion three were drowned. The re-1 maindcr clung to the boat, but were sc exhausted that they were about to give up the struggle when a British ship came alongside. Two of the crew died from exposure, thus only 12 escaped. > The ordeal of these men i.t another indication of the complete disregard by Germany of the rules of naval warfare which provides that the safely of the passengers and crew of a vessel must be ensured before a vessel may be sunk. Ships' boats are not classed as "a place of safty." | For the death of these live men Ger-j many is responsible, as she has also| been for hundreds of others unfortun-i ate to come up against ruthless U-boat and raider crews. NEWS IN HOLLAND NO COMMENT MEANTIME. APPRECIATION OF BRITISH HELP. (Received This Day. 10.55 a.m.) AMSTERDAM. November 20. The Netherlands press refrains from commenting on the Simon Bolivar disaster, but pays a tribute to the British rescue work and speedy help. It prints fullv the British statement that a Gorman mine caused the disaster.