U-BOAT RAIDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 March 1940, Page 5

U-BOAT RAIDS

FROM RUSSIAN BASE IN NORTH PACIFIC SAID TO BE EXPECTED IN JUNE. WHALE BAY TURNED OVER TO GERMANY. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. WASHINGTON, March 26. Naval circles are devoting close attention to reports of a German submarine base at Whale Bay in the Russian area of Possiet Bay, but at present they see little menace to the United States. They are inclined to dismiss the reports as a-further move in the European war of nerves.

The Shanghai correspondent of the “New York Times” says that the British and French naval authorities in the Far East are apprehensive of German submarine raids in June in the Western Pacific. It is revealed that the Soviet Union turned over to Germany the control of Whale Bay. The technical, mechanical, police and naval administrative personnel is exclusively German. Large workshops have been completed and a submarine which was manufactured in Germany and was railed across Siberia in November is being assembled.

The Shanghai correspondent of the “New York Times” reported last week that British, French, Japanese, and United States naval officers were focusing their attention on the Commodore Islands, as it was known that the Soviet Union was fortifying Bering and Medny, the main islands of the Kamandorsky group, ' with a strong submarine base at Bering Island, which it was feared the . Russians might grant Germany the use for raids in the Pacific in the event of the Allies becoming embroiled with the Soviet.