VICHY SHIPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 November 1941, Page 5

VICHY SHIPS

INTERCEPTED BY BRITISH NAVY Off South African Coast CARGOES OF CONTRABAND FOR GERMANY ATTEMPTS TO SCUTTLE VESSELS FRUSTRATED LONDON, November 4. A convoy of five Vichy ships, running contraband to the Germans, has been intercepted off South Africa by our naval forces. Revealing this today, an Admiralty communique states that three of the French ships tried to scuttle themselves and that operations are still proceeding. For some time the Vichy Government has been attempting to run supplies for Germany in escorted convoys from the Far East to France. As soon as the convoy, escorted by a sloop, was sighted, the commander of the British forces, as he was entitled to do, requested the escort to take the ships into port for examination. The escort refused to do this and it was then that an attempt was made to scuttle three of the Vichy ships. The attempt was frustrated by prompt action on the part of the British forces. The attempt could only have been made under instructions from the Germans in order to prevent a search of the ships and disclosure of the nature of their cargoes.