Evening star., 1914-10-07
GERMANS BADLY DAMAGE
TAHITI, REFUGEES SAY
Two Cruisers Bombard French Is
land Town, When Fort Opens
Fire on Them.
Two Persons Killed and 81, ,OoO, 900
Damage to Property-Natives
Flee to Hills.

SAN FRANCISCO, October Two
lives were lost. $4,000. 900 damage was
done. two vessels were sunk and two
piocks of business houses and resi-
dences were destroyed by the German
cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, in
their bombardment last month of the
french colony of Papeete Tahiti
Refugees from the island told the
story on their arrival here today
aboard the Union Steamship Company's
liner Moana, from Australia, which
touched at Tahiti
The dead We're one native and a
Japanese chauffeur. who was cut in
two by a shell while bringing his car
oown INTO town from the hills for an
other load of refugees.
No landing was made. and no sup
plies or stores We're captured. The
French set fire to 40,0O0-ton coal nile
to prevent the Germans replenishi
their bunkers.
Natives Stay in Hills.
When the Moana left the natives had
not yet returned from the hills Mod
ern shell fire was something new to
them. and the whites who witnessed
the bombardment did not blame them.
1here We're almost as many accounts
on board the Moana of what had
happened as there were passengers,
but the preponderance of testimony
was that the French fired the first shot
from a hillside fort. Otherwise, it was
thought. the settlement would not
nave been bombarded. although un-
doubtedly the French sunboat Zolce
would have been sunk.
The two Germans hove in sight fly
ing no flag about in the morning.
ran the composite narrative of the pas
sengers. In the harbor were lying the
F'rence gunboat Zolee and the German
merchantman Walkurie. the Zolee's
prize. Anticipating the possibility of
a raid. the French had stripped the
Zoleee and mounted her guns ashore
AS soon as the strangers were rec
ognlzed the fort opened fire. The Ger
mans at once hoisted their battle flags
and began a hot reply. Within easy
range they would swing and fire, fire
and swing, broadside after broadside
Nothing on the island was of weight
TO match their eight-inch rifles.
We estimated that in all more than
hundred eight-inch shells fell in the
town. besides a rain of smaller projec-
tiles from the secondary batteries.
Crew Hurries Ashore,
Being quite defenseless, the crew of
the Zolee hurried ashore at the first
shot. Not long afterward the little
gunboat began to sink, riddled with
holes. Her prize, the walkurie flew
| no flag and the Germans ignorant of
her nationality and that her crew were
prisoners on the island, sank her, too.
The bombardment lasted about two
hours. Those houses surrounding the
american consulate over which the
Stars and Stripes were flying con-
| spicuously were not damaged, but the
water front and mercantile district
were utterly wrecked
About o'clock tho Ccho
and Gneisenau steamed off to the west
ward undamaged- The fire from the
little French fort had been feeble and
| fallen short"
Two days before the Moana reached
Papeete her wireless operator picked
up code signals which he now sup
poses to have been conversation be-
tween the two German cruisers Ap-
parently they still were lurking in the
archipelago.