ALTMARCK STILL AGROUND IN FIORD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 February 1940, Page 5

ALTMARCK STILL AGROUND IN FIORD

Under Guard of Norwegian Marines DIPLOMATIC PROTESTS AND COMPLICATIONS PERTINENT QUESTIONS PUT BY LORD HALIFAX (By Telegraph.—Press Association. —Copyright.) LONDON, February 18. The Norwegian Minister in London, Mr Colban, presented Norway’s protest against, violation of tier territorial waters. This Note requested the return of the British prisoners released from the Altinarek, and it reserved Norwegian rights in the principles involved. A member of the crew of tlm Tairoa, one ol the Britons released from the prison ship, said today: “It. is absolutely untrue that the Altinarek was searched at. Bergen.” Another rescued seaman declared that, the prisoners put out the Bed Ensign from the porthole during the stay in Bergen and created, such a terrific din. that it was incredible they were not. heard. The next moves seem to lie with Norway, first, to reply to the British complaint, and secondly to decide the status of the A.ltmarck, which is aground, namely, .whether she is a free, merchantman or whether she can be interned as a warship. The status of the Altinarek is further complicated by news that she was flying the German service flag when she entered Bergen, for which reason she was exempt from the usual Customs examination The vessel remains in the fiord with her stern aground under the guard of Norwegian marines, fl. is not known how many members of her crew are aboard; some of them have gone to a. neighbouring lo'wn. A doctor has visited the ship.

THE ALLEGED SEARCH The Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, put the British complaint to Mr Colban. Norwegian Minister in London. After pointing out that Norway must have been fully-informed of the 'Altmarck’s predatory career as an auxiliary of Admiral Graf Spec, Lord Halifax asked: — (1) Did the Norwegians most carefully search the Altmarek when she entered Bergen? (2) How was the search carried out? (3) What did the search reveal? (4) What would the Norwegians have done if they had found the prisoners? (5) If the Norwegians had believed that prisoners were aboard, why did they not detain the Altmarek and remove the sick prisoners? (6) Why were the prisoners not released or held pending an examination of their legal position? (7) Why did Norwegian warships accompany the Altmarek? Lord Halifax declared that Norway failed in her duty as a neutral. The question of the Royal Navy’s infringement of territorial waters was less important than the fact that 400 British subjects were kept for many weeks in conditions not fit for a dog. The German violation of Norwegian waters and the treatment of the prisoners were contrary to international law and justified the British action. Evidence in the meantime piles up that the Altmarek has been by no means a peaceful merchantman. One of the prisoners, a member of the Tairoa’s crew, said that a friendly German unlashed the hatch over the prisoners when the British warships appeared, and an officer on the bridge shot him. He added: “There is no doubt the Altmarek was built specially as a naval supply ship. She had collapsible munition racks and could easily have carried two years’ stores.” GUNS ON THE BRIDGE. A New Zealander, William Wheeler, R.N.V.R., who was a gunner on the Doric Star, said: “There were small guns on the bridge and plenty of rifles and machine-guns about. On one occasion a wooden screen accidentally fell, revealing the muzle of an unsuspected gun. We realised that it would be hopeless to attempt to rush the bridge, as we would be shot down without trouble.” Another member of the Doric Star crew said that there were no lower decks on the Altmarek, the whole carrying space being used for ammunition and tanks. For a long time it has been notorious .that the Altmarek acted as a supply ship for the pocket-battleship Admiral Graf Spec, yet since Friday night the German radio has been claiming in all languages for home and foreign consumption, and with endless repetition, that the Altmarek was a completely unarmed merchantship whose crew had no weapons whatever. All German accounts of the affair have suppressed the fact that the Altrnarck was a naval supply ship, and there has been only the briefest mention of British prisoners being on board. By this pretence, the Nazi Government thought to convince its own people and others that the British Navy had been guilty of attacking peaceful merchant seamen. NAZI ADMISSION. An admission that the claim is untrue now appears from the statement, of a German Foreign Office spokesman at a conference this afternoon. Though he repeated the claim that the ship itself was unarmed, he admitted that she was a tanker in the service of the Germany Navy, and that she had refuelled the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spec. He also said that the crew had pistols for what he described as “police purposes.” The facts go much further than those of the German Foreign Office admission. The British Admiralty last night described how the contact men found two pom-poms and four machine-guns on board the Altmarek. Moreover, some of the German sailors who escaped astern took rifles with them and fired on the boarding party. Actually these men were naval ratings from the Graf Spec who had acted as armed guards toward the British prisoners. Before claiming that the Altmarek was a peaceful merchant ship the German Press and radio would have done well to have consulted the official list of German naval and merchant ships published in Berlin last year. This list given the Altmarek as a naval supply ship.