ARMING OF SHIPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 March 1940, Page 5

ARMING OF SHIPS

AGAINST GERMAN ATTACK CO N EIDE RE D B V DU TO 11 GOVkRNMENT. PROVISION OF AIR & NAVAL CONVOYS. By Telegraph—Press. Association—Copyright LONDON, March 6.A message from Amsterdam says that the Dutch Government. is considering’ arming all merchantmen and providing aerial and naval convoys across the North Sea as a result of a German admission that the Nazis have begun a ruthless contraband control bv a new method.

German seaplane commanders have orders to signal all ships to heave to and then alight and send a boat to the ship. The ship’s crew must be ordered to leave if contraband is found, after which the ship will, be sunk. A. Berlin message says that a Wilhelmstrasse spokesman declared that German pilots are contravening international law if they fire on or bomb ships without warning. He suggested that commanders of the Dutch ships attacked could not have obeyed the pilots’ orders. The Dutch Government is awaiting the reports of the captains of the vessels recently attacked. THE DOMALA BOMBING. The circumstances surrounding the bombing of the British passenger vessel Domain, it. is stated in London, are not likely to occur again. The ruse adopted by the enemy bomber of approaching the liner witii its navigation light on and flying toward the land will not again deceive ships’ officers into believing that the plane belongs to a friendly patrol.' The "News Chronicle” describes the attack as a shocking affair and says: "The Nazi policy is to do as much damage as possible to everything afloat and kill the greatest, possible number of people. Anything is a target—liner, lightship, raft, and even a person swimming for his life. “Let us beware of getting so used to murderous actions that we almost condone them in our minds as being common form,” it adds: “Only Nazis behave like this at sea.”

A message from Copenhagen says it is officially stated that Denmark, Norway and Sweden are opening negotiations with Britain and Germany in an attempt to reach an agreement for the safeguarding of neutral shipping. A message from Havana states that 26 members of the crew of the Finnish ship Wilja, which was torpedoed near England on the night of February 17, arrived aboard the Maasdam. 'The captain said that, the submarine was not seen in the darkness. The torpedo struck aft. and the vessel was set on fire and broke in half.

The Nazi attacks on Dutch ships in the North Sea, Daventry reports, have caused a prominent Netherlands newspaper to comment: "These Nazi airmen have damaged the German name in a manner that German propaganda will not easily repair. The abominable procedure of the Nazi airmen cries out to heaven." When Dutch newspaper correspondents inquired from the German Foreign Office concerning the protest from the Netherlands Government, the y were told that full reports had not yet been received from the pilots.

acute anger AWAKENED IN HOLLAND. GERMAN STARVATION THREAT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.55 a.m.) RUGBY, March 6. The bombing from German planes during the weekend of nine Dutch ships, coupled with the demand of the Commander-in-Chief of the German navy that the Netherlands should follow the'example of the United States and forbid their ships to enter the war zone, has, according to newspaper dispatches from Amsterdam, aroused acute anger and indignation there. It is pointed out that compliance with such an order by a country situated in the centre of the war zone would involve the laying-up of ships and consequent starvation of her people. The claim by Grand-Admiral von Raeder that the only neutral ships attacked were those carrying contraband, leads the “Manchester Guardian” to ask: “But what sort of search is this which would pass intuitive judgment on cargo from the air. It is not .contraband but legitimate and essential trade of neutrals with us that Germany is seeking to destroy. Intimidation is her means to this purpose and killing neutral seamen, with hardships to survivors in open boats. far from land, comes as grist to her mill As Norway, Sweden and Denmark have already learnt, an isolated protest from small countries counts for nothing in Berlin, but the united strength of the Oslo Powers is considerable and if from economic co-operation they passed now to common action over these illegal] ities at sea Germany could not show the contempt she reserves for them singly”