LONG OVERDUE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 May 1941, Page 5

LONG OVERDUE

SHIP CARRYING AMBULANCE UNITS BOUND FROM NEW YORK TO ALEXANDRIA. SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN SUNK BY NAZIS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright ( LONDON. May 19. A number of American citizens are believed to have lost their lives in the sinking of an B,COO ton Egyptian ship, either by a German submarine or surface raider in the South Atlantic. The ship is considerably overdue from Brazil to Cape Town, en route from New York to Alexandria. She carried complete ambulance units for the Free French Forces in the Middle East, including more than 20 vehicles and much valuable equipment. There were 203 passengers and 120 members of the crew oil board. The ship left New York on March 20. At least sixty Americans belonging to noted United States families were on board. They had volunteered as ambulance drivers tn the British forces in the Middle East.

FURTHER DETAILS FEARS OF HEAVY LOSS OF LIFE. AMERICAN PASSENGERS & OTHERS. (Received This Day. 9.30 a.m.) NEW YORK, May 19. . It is learned that the Egyptian steamer Zamzam, of 8.299 tons, has been sunk by enemy action in the South Atlantic and 323 persons, including 100 Americans, are believed to have been drowned. It is understood that passengers on the Zamzam included 24 American ambulance drivers. en route for service with the British forces in Egypt: also 36 American Catholic missioners bound for Central Africa. The cargo included trucks and automobile machinery, marked with the flags of non-belligcrents in Egypt but these probably were destined for the British forces.

A British Official Wireless message states that the British-American Ambulance Corps aboard the Zamzam was destined for the Free French force in the Middle East. The equipment included over twenty vehicles, together with a field kitchen and X-ray trailer, manned by 24 Americans, all of them either doctors or male nurse-drivers. AH spoke French.