The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-06-23
GERMAN SAILORS
SINK OWN FLEET
OFF TEUT PORTS
Twelve Warships Scuttled at
Kiel and Wilhelmshaven.
Follows Sinking of Al Interned
Ships Saturday.
ADMIRAL REUTER- GAVE ORDER
Kaiser's Command, He Says
Thought Truce Ended.
Hun Sailors Killed-Fleet Dis
appears as by Magic.
Kaiser's Command, He Says
Thought Truce Ended.
(Hy the Associated Press.l

Weimar. June % (Sunday).-The
German warships which were not sur
rendered to the allies and which have
been anchored off Kiel. Wilhelms-
haven. and other points have been
sunk by German sailors manning
them, according to a report received
here from a reliable authority.
According to the reports there were
twelve German war vessels. besides de-
s,royers, which were in German wa
ters. not having been turned over to
the entente under the armistice provi-
sions.
Two Ships Still Afloat.
Thurso, Scotland. June 23.-Of the
German vessels interned in Scapa
Flow, the dreadnaught Baden and the
cruiser Emden remained afloat today,
the Fra nkfort and the Nuremberg may
possibly be salvaged. Two destroyers
were still on the surface and twenty
other destroyers were beached.
The other vessels of the once proud
German high seas fleet were beneath
the waves, sunk by their own German
crews to keep them from becoming
tire properly OF the allies.
London, June 23.-Although re-
ports have stated that six Germans
were killed and ten wounded when the
boats of the German fleet in Scapa
Flow were fired upon subsequent to
the scuttling of the German fleet, the
Daily, Mail says others may have been
drowned and some may possibly have
reached the Orkney Islands. and have
not. as yet, been reported. The main
force of the British fleet was absent
exercising at sea when the German
ships were sunk, only some drifters.
small warships and patrolling aircraft
being on guard over the interned
enemy squadron.
Hun Admiral Issued Order.
Admiral Won Reuter-, commander of
the surrendered German fleet. says
he issued a.. order to sink the ships,
the Daily Mail adds, and did so be-
cause at the beginning of the war the
German emperor directed that no Ger
man waFships should fall into the
enemy's hands. He says he believes
from newspaper reports that the
armistice had been ended.
Admiral Won Reuter- visited Ger
many some weeks ago, it being un-
derstood at the time that the reason
for his trip there was that he was i'll,
but he soon returned, and it is be-
lieved at that time he circulated the
order to sink the German ships by
evading the censorship or making sig
nails to the various vessels, an act
which the close proximity of the Ger
man ships made quite easy. The Mall
quotes the admiralty as denying that
the German crews were periodically
changed and saying that the original
crews remained on board. There
were from $50 to 200 men on the big
ships and from ten to twenty on board
the destroyers.
5000 Hun Sailors Aboard.
Therefore there were nearly five
thousand in the water or in the ships
boats when the fleet was sunk. Four
teen hundred were landed by the Brit
ish on Sunday at Nigg, Rushire. or
the northerriNshore of Cromarty Firth
They were placed in hutments and
hare being held under military guard
From the behavior of the ships. ac-
(Continued on Page Two.1