MURDER AT SEA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 January 1940, Page 6

MURDER AT SEA

MANY NEUTRAL SHIPS SUNK BY U=BOATS WITHOUT ANY ATTEMPT TO SAVE CREWS. NUMBERS OF SEAMEN LOST. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 11.15 a.m.) RUGBY, January 23. More neutral ships have been sunk by U-boats. ..On January 21, one Greek steamer and one Danish ship were sunk without warning by German submarines, in neither case did the submarine make any attempt to save the lives of the crew.

On January 21, the Greek ship Ekatontarchos Dracoulis was torpedoed ■without warning by a German submarine in the Atlantic. Twelve men of the crew were picked up by the Italian ship Nino Padre, but one lifeboat with several men in it is still missing. The submarine made no attempt to save the crew. On the same day the Danish steamer Tekla was torpedoed without warning. Eight of the crew were rescued by the Norwegian steamer Iris. Again the submarine made no effort to save the crew. There is not the slightest doubt that the Tekla was struck by a torpedo from a U-boat. One of the survivors says he clearly saw the track of the torpedo just before the explosion occurred. It is now known that three other neutral ships which were sunk some time ago were victims of German submarines. These ships were the Finnish Mercator, sunk on December 2, the Swedish Trozelli, sunk on January 1, and the Swedish Svarton, sunk on January 3. For as long as possible, those outside Germany tried to believe that these ships had been lost through other causes, but irreputable evidence now proves them to have been deliberately sunk bv U-boats.

Today the whole world outside Ger T many is echoing with less restraint the sentiments of the Dutch newspaper, “Het Vaderland,” when it wrote of the sinking of the liner “Arendskerk: “After the'torpedoing of the Sliedrich. this is one of the most impertinent acts of the German submarines.”