NAZI DISTORTIONS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21196, 20 August 1940, Page 7

NAZI DISTORTIONS

AMUSEMENT IN LONDON H.M.S. VICTORY NOT HIT (United Press Assn.—Elcc. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, August 18 Amusement has been caused in London by the manner in which the German broadcast statement that the Victory had been hit by bombs at Portsmouth, already stated here to be untrue, grew on an impressive scale in its travels through enemy wireless stations. The Zeesen station said at 10.30 am. on Thursday: “Nelson’s flagship was hit during recent raids on Portsmouth.” At 6 p.m., on the same day, the Rome broadcast stated: “It is officially reported from Stockholm that during a German air attack on Portsmouth a great explosion was heard, which was believed to be a hit on the British battleship Nelson.” “Total Blockade of Britain” What might be termed the comic relief to the fierce renewal of Germany’s air attacks is the grandiloquent announcement of a total blockade of Britain. Berlin itself states that the announcement was made in “giant headlines” in the Goebbels’ press, which “carried the full wording of the Government statement on the front page.” Such a position for such an announcement in the Berlin press is not regarded as surprising, even when the statement has to be printed that Britain’s “criminal course of warfare” has led the Reich Government to decide to “retaliate in kind and employ armed force with the same ruthlessness against shipping around England.” The savage attacks on neutral ships by the Germans since the beginning of the war suggest that there will be no chance of policy, except that German sea methods will now have the dignified official title of Total Blockade of England. Mining of Bay of Biscay The British Admiralty announcement with reference to the mining of the Bay of Biscay is presumably a reply to a lengthy statement from the German news agency with reference to the blockade, says a London message. “The High Command will use to the fullest extent the favourable and strategic position which the German forces enjoy owing to their domination of the Continental coast from the Bay of Biscay to the North Cape, as well as their superiority in the air and on the sea around England,” the German news agency statement reads. “Germany is convinced that the announcement of the total blockade of the British Isles marks a further decisive step toward the termination of the war and the removal of those responsible for it. The rapid defeat of Britain and the removal of the present British rulers, who alone are opposed to peace, is, therefore, the first consideration for all Europe as well as for other neutral countries.”