FACTS ESTABLISHED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 November 1939, Page 5

FACTS ESTABLISHED

SINKING OF THE TERUKUNI MARU THE CAPTAIN’S EVIDENCE. NO QUESTION OF DRIFTING MINE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 22. Further evidence that the recent losses of British and neutral merchant ships off the east coast of England were due to German mines purposely laid in order to inflict loss on neutrals is provided by the testimony of the captain of • the Japanese liner Terukuni Mani, which was sunk by a mine yesterday. He states that it was broad daylight and visibility was good. He had five lookouts posted. An explosion occurred underneath the ship, lifting it and throwing men off their feet. This fact, to which the Japanese master attests, would dispose summarily of the suggestion—which Nazi propaganda would doubtless repeat—that the sinking was due to a drifting British mine, even if it were not already established that the British mines are carefully designed and constructed to become harmless on breaking away from their moorings. The Terukuni Marti had visited a British contraband control station, from which she had been cleared after only five hours’ delay. She had a British pilot on board, of whose conduct the Japanese captain expressed himself in the warmest terms, stating that the pilot remained on the bridge with him and had been reluctant to leave, even when ordered to do so by the captain. That there was no loss of life was due to a combination of circumstances —daylight, calm weather, and the fact that the captain gave the order to lower the boats. Moreover, there were in the vicinity several British auxiliary craft, and these played a big part in the rescue of the passengers and crew.

The greatest indignation is naturally shown by Japanese and other neutral shipping companies at the illegal and wanton mining by Germany of the shipping channels, with the obvious intention of inflicting loss on foreign merchant shipping. ANGER IN JAPAN ACTION BY GOVERNMENT DEMANDED. TOKIO, November 22. The sinking of the Terukuni Maru, a liner of which Japan was very proud, has shocked the Japanese. The newspapers chorused a protest, urging the Government to demand that the belligerents respect Japan’s rights as a neutral.