NAZI FRIGHTFULNESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 February 1940, Page 5

NAZI FRIGHTFULNESS

SINKING OP NEUTRAL SHIPS

HORROR & INDIGNATION SWEEPS DENMARK.

EVIDENCE OF BRUTALITY. Ry Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON. January 30. The Danish steamer Fredensborg (2094 tons) was mined off the Scottish coast. 20 of the crew being lost, states a report from Copenhagen. The "Daily Telegraph’s” Copenhagen correspondent says that a new wave of horror and indignation has swept Denmark as a result, of the sinking of the steamers England and Fredensborg. The Fredensborg is stated to have been torpedoed when she attempted to rescue the crew of the England. A high official said: "The Germans are doing their utmost to ensure that their are no witnesses to survive their brutality.’’

(It was reported that the England 12767 tons! was torpedoed by a U-boat, which left only one survivor). A British Official Wireless message comments: In addition to those neutral ships already reported, namely, the England, the Norwegian ship Faro (844 tons), and the Norwegian ship Hosanger (1591 tons), which were sunk by a submarine without warning and in conditions which gave the crews virtually no chance of surviving, two other neutral victims of warningless submarine attack within the same period of I tie past few days are recorded. In all cases the sailors who survived suffered the most acute hardships and an exceptionally large proportion perished through injuries, drownings, or exposure in terribly severe cold.

EVIL SPIRIT

NAZIS' REVOLTING BARBARITY.

COMMENT BY "THE TIMES.

LONDON, January 31

As yesterday’s unusually extended offensive from the air again showed, submarine attack without warning is not the only form of German's frightfulness at sea with which neutrals as well as British ships have to reckon. In the systematic bombings and machine-gunnings from the air even lightships are not spared. "The Times” says: “These barbarities, revolting as they are to all who are swayed by conscience, by religion, or by any sense of human obligations, are but an index of the evil spirit that is in the ascendant in Gorihany today. IL was that, spirit which prompted the rape successively of Austria, of Czechoslovakia. and of Poland. "Growing as it was given rein, that same spirit dictated brutal attacks not. only with bombs upon Polish cities but even with machine-guns upon helpless refugees fleeing from the ruin of their homes.. Still unbridled, it leads to the pitiless tortures by which the Gestapo seeks to break the spirit of its Jewish. Czech and Polish victims. "Its exponents, knowing no other method, think to subjugate the world in the same way, and since they have realised that the struggle against tins country must be carried on at sea. it is at sea that once more they reveal to the. world the devil with which they are possessed. "The Nazi at sea has shown what the Nazi really is. and nothing could more clearly demonstrate the necessity, if the world is to be a place fit for decent people for unswerving perseverance until the evil thing is mastered.”

S.O.S. CALL BANCREST IN DISTRESS. ALL CREW SAVED EXCEPT ONE. (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) LONDON. January 31. The Bancrest, formerly the Ambassador. sent .out a S.O.S. distress signal in the north of Scotland and a nearby ship saved 32 of the crew of 33. A German mine exploded on the north-east coast, and shook a town. No damage was done. Another mine was wash up nearby. BUILDING & REPAIRS ADMIRALTY ASSUMES ALL RESPONSIBILITY. ‘ (Received This Day, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, January 31. The Prime Minister. Mr Neville Chamberlain, in the ’House 01. Commons announced that the Admiralty was assuming lhe responsibility of merchant, shipbuilding and repairs tomorrow. similar to that in the last wai. Sir James Lithgow would bo controller and Sir Amos Ayro director.