FOUL DEED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1940, Page 6

FOUL DEED

NORWEGIAN SHIP SUNK WITHOUT WARNING IN VIOLATION OF EXPLICIT PLEDGE. VICTIMS LEFT TO DROWN. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 11.15 a.m.) RUGBY. Apt.! 7. "Norwegian vessel ■ on a voyage I tom Britain will) ccal o; t.'.ncr ramtlar cargo will not. be nilnek'd »y German naval forces unless in con\ .y, but may be i mined." —This w;’.i: one promise by Vice-Admiral Schmicwindi to Mr M. T. lialvorse:’. who vir.imd Germany on February 21. on L’C-hali .1 (he Norwegian Shipowners' .Association. mid who was authorised by the Admiral io acquaint, the Norwegian Minister in Berlin witli iho promise. in ilia early hours of April 6. the Ncrwegirm steamer Navarra, of 2,118 tons, carrying coal front Swansea to Oslo, illuminated and with nationality marks painted large cm her sides, sailing alone anti on an ordinary course, was torpedoed without warning by a German submarine. The Navarra sank in two minutes. All the officers and nine of the crew were killed. The U-boat stood by watching the men from one lifeboat struggling in the water after the boat capsized ir. launching, but made no effort to render any assistance. The remaining lifeboat was left many miles from land and the occupants were rescued by a Finnish steamer which was guided to the lifeboat by a British patrolling aircraft. It is suggested here that-one can only hope for the sake of the tradition of future German sailors that the reason for the U-boat's officers’ conduct can be explained in the words of the German captain of the Columbus, who said of the scuttling of his fine vessel. "But —orders are orders."