RAID ON NAURU

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 December 1940, Page 6

RAID ON NAURU

DAMAGE BELIEVED TO TOTAL NEARLY £1,000,000 PLANT CONCENTRATED ON SHORE GUNS FIRED AT POINT BLANK RANGE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. The sea raider which shelled Nauru is believed to have done nearly a £l,000,000 sterling damage to the Phosphate Commission’s plant and buildings. The raider sailed at point blank range and hurled shells into the plant which was concentrated on the foreshore. The general manager of the Phosphate Commision, Mr. A. H. Gaze, said the damage done would probably be irreparable. The buildings and plant were valued at £2,000,000. He believes the raider’s purpose was to destroy the huge cantilever loader, the power house, the administrative buildings, the wireless station and any ships loading at the island. It is not yet known how far the enemy succeeded in its purpose.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Menzies, said the public could rest assured that the Navy was doing everything to destroy the enemy, ship. He had communicated the facts of the shelling to the Japanese Government. “In this latest manifestation of German methods of waging war, the peoples of the nvould have yet another example of German duplicity and lack of regard for any common decencies which exist among civilised nations.” said Mr. Menzies. “Among such nations this action will only deepen if that is possible, the disgust with which Nazi Germany is regarded.”