CARGOES SEIZED

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20995, 23 December 1939, Page 7

CARGOES SEIZED

CONTRABAND CONTROL WILD NAZI BOASTS PROVED TO BE UNTRUE (Omcial Wireless) (Received Dec. 23, 11 a.m.) RUGBY, Dec. 22 The latest figures of contraband seized by the Allies, bringing the total to 870,000 tons, is, says the Manchester Guardian, one answer to the wild Nazi boasts to their own people, the sum of which is that the British Navy is in hiding, while our commerce is almost destroyed. There is, it adds, perhaps a more impressive reply in a comparison of the damage done to Britain at sea in the last war and in this. Our present mercantile losses amount to 400,000 tons, or under 2 per cent of the total, whereas on November 27, 1914, after 16 weeks of war, 585,551 tons, or nearly 3 per cent of the total, were lost, though a great part of our misfortunes then was admittedly due to ships caught in the Baltic or seized in German ports. This time there is comfort in the fact that we have suffered much less, despite the greater number of German submarines. Germany herself has lost 5 per cent of her merchant ships, notwithstanding that they hurried from the seas. The British naval losses, although severe—H.M.S. Courageous, H.M.S. Royal Oak, two destroyers, the Rawalpindi and a smaller craft—compare favourably with those in the same period of the last year, in which one battleship, seven cruisers, two destroyers and a seaplane carrier were lost. SOUGHT SHELTER GERMAN MOTOR SHIP SUSPICIONS IN AMERICA (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyrlg&t) NEW YORK, Dec. 21 The Treasury reveals that the German motor-ship Arauca, which anchored at Port Everglades after being chased by a British cruiser, carried 800 to 900 tons of oil, which an official of the Maritime Commission says was more than double her requirements for the voyage to Hamburg, says the Washington correspondent of the New York Times. However, the Treasury believes to be unjustified the suspicion that she was preparing to fuel a German warship. Coastguards are investigating reports that the Arauca might have been carrying munitions when she sought refuge. Watchers say that objects were jettisoned as she fled from the British cruiser. NAVAL EXPLOITS HONOURS FOR SUBMARINE PROMOTION FOR COMMANDER SINKING OF U-BOAT (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. copyrig-ntj LONDON, Dec. 2 The King has awarded the Distinguished Service Order to Lieu-tenant-Commander E. O. Bickford, commander of the submarine Salmon’ which recently sank a U-boat and torpedoed at least one German cruiser. He has also been promoted commander. The Distinguished Service Cross has been awarded to the first lieutenant of the Salmon, Lieutenant M. F. Wykeham Martin, Lieutenant R. H. Hancock and Warrant-Engineer O. F. Lancaster.

Eight members of the crew have been given the Distinguished service Medal.