AN ACT EXPECTED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 December 1939, Page 5

AN ACT EXPECTED

DEATH OF GRAF SPEE’S CAPTAIN GERMAN OFFICIAL COMMENT AMERICAN AND OTHER VIEWS. TRIBUTES TO DEAD OFFICER. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. BUENOS AIRES, December 20. It is reported from Berlin that a German Naval Hig'li Command communique states: “The navy understands and esteems Captain LangsdorfTs act. As a. fighter he did what the Fuehrer, the German people and the navy expeeled, lie was faithful to ancient tradition and followed his ship.”

German associates said that they expected Captain Langsdorff to commit suicide, since an order, believed to come directly from Herr Hitler, forced him ignominiously to scuttle the Admiral Graf Spee instead of resuming the battle as he desired. Captain Langsdorff called all his officers to the hotel and chatted with them for three hours. Shortly after midnight he arose and circled the room, shaking hands with each. He then retired, requesting that he should not be disturbed.

His confreres said that none present doubted that they were speaking to their commander for the last time. An aide at 8.30 a.m. discovered Captain Langsdorff’s body, with a bullet through the temple, on the bed. There were three letters addressed to the German Embassy, his wife, and his parents. WRAPPED IN FLAG. The Buenos Aires correspondent of the United Press of America reports that Captain Langsdorff wrapped himself in the German flag before committing suicide. It is presumed that he used his own pistol, as the Argentine officials later explained that the officers were not relieved of their swords and pistols because it was considered they were personal adornments and not belligerent weapons. Captain Langsdorff’s body is lying in state at the Argentine naval arsenal for burial with full military honours in the German cemetery at 6. p.m. tomorrow. Captain Dove, of the Africa Shell, in a tribute to Captain Langsdorff, said: "There was no mercy from Captain Langsdorff when he was fighting, but when not fighting he was a fine gentleman." The Montevideo correspondent of the "New York Times” says Captain Langsdorff made a serious psychological error which contributed heavily to his depression. He mistook Montevideo's homage to the dead among his crew as a great popular Latin expression of approval of what he and his sailors stood for and he went to Buenos Aires expecting to be welcomed with open arms. Instead, he found popular feeling so cold that Argentina would be an unpleasant place to live in. He was convinced . that the crew would be received as shipwrecked sail-, ors and he expected to get them to Germany aboard Italian steamers bound for Trieste. The internment destroyed his dream, while Argentine newspapers taunted him with being a coward and a traitor to the traditions of the sea. The "New York Times” in an editorial says: “To Nazi Germany the Admiral Graf Spec’s and Captain Langsdorff’s end may be glorious, but it is glory won at the price of tradition and the respect of other men and nations and perhaps eventually of the German naval morale."

HITLER’S TIN E COMING. Colonel Frederick Palmer, a military expert writing for the North American Newspaper Alliance, says naval history records no greater humiliation than that of Captain LangsdorfT, and adds that Corporal Hitler may find the Storm Troop method ineffective in the navy. “When the time comes,” he asks, “will he, too. be able to pull the trigger on himself?” The Montevideo correspondent of the "New York Times" states it is learned on the unimpeachable authority of diplomatic sources that if Captain LangsdorfT had disobeyed Uruguay’s order to depart, the Latin-American nations were prepared to send warships to act as policemen and escort the Admiral Graf Spec to sea. It was said that Uruguay, which was under German diplomatic pressure, consulted her neighbours and was promised full support, specially from the Argentine and Brazil.

Buenos Aires newspapers are complaining about the refusal of the Nazi diplomatic authorities to throw any light on Captain Langsdorff’s suicide, a radio report states. Press representatives have not. been allowed to enter the chapel where the body is lying. Many of the newspapers suggest that the suicide was an act of protest against Herr Hiller's order to scuttle the warship.

A Daventry broadcast states that only one German newspaper, the “Dutsche Allgemeine Zeitung,” published the fact of the suicide, and then gave it a few lines only. The German radio had also been silent on the matter.