Evening star., 1939-10-27
Americans Believed
Still on Board
Freighter
By the Associated Press.


the United States steamer City of
Flint was being sailed from Muir
mansk to Germany under COM
mand of prize crew from the Ger
man pocket battleship Deutschland.
The freighter was reported some
where along the Norwegian coast,
heading slowly into the British
blockade area.
The vessel. seized as a contraband
ship and taken to the Russian port
of MurmanSk. above the Arctic Cir
Gle, was released last night by So
Wet Russia.
Advices reaching Berlin said the
Germans lost no time in lifting an
chor for Hamburg. where a prize
court was planned to decide on the
fate of the ship and her cargo.
The whereabouts of the American
crew of the City of Flint still was
unclear here, but German officials
said they believed" the Americans
were aboard the freighter.
Precedent Seen in Case.
Germany's seizure of the United
States steamer City of Flint assumed
growing Importance as possible pre-
cedent in future Nazi policies of sea
warfare against Great Britain
Germans generally contended that
the sea patrol which boarded the
American freighter was within its
rights and it was predicted in in
formed quarters that the vessel anG
her cargo soon would be in a Ger
man harbor as a prize of war.
German submarine commanders
said they would have no trouble
conveying her from Murmansk
down the North Sea and through
the British blockade to Hamburg
where prize court would sit on
the many complicated questions
raised by her capture.
Voyage Considered Easy.
Informed sources said the voyage
from Murmansk was considered
relatively easy in this season of fogs
and poor visibility. More ships were
arriving at Hamburg these foggy
days, they said, than the British
suspected.
Germans said the commanders of
Nazl submarine convoys would be
only too happy if British Warshlps
attempted to take the City of Flint
A spokesman of the United States
Embassy here said last night that
questions involving international law
in the City of Flint issue and ulti-
mate disposition of the vessel still
were way up in the air" Germany
had announced no decisions.
The authoritative commentary
service, Dienst aus Deutschland
however. disputed what it called a
widely raised argument in the
United States that it was illegal to
commander the freighter because
less than half of her cargo was con-
traband under either the British or
German conception.
Up to Prize Court.
The German view of blockade
warfare. it said, was that a vessel
carrying contraband, however small
the quantity, might be brought in as
prize and that it was up to prize
court to determine what was to be
done about the non-contraband por-
ton of the cargo and the ship her.
self.
Germans have argued that they
were justified in taking the City of
Flint first to Tromso, Norway, and
then to Murmansk-both neutral
ports-contending that she was un-
seaworthy. What, specifically, made
her unseaworthy has not been dis
closed.
Western Offensive Expected.
The impression persisted, mean
While, that the German command
contemplated an offensive in the
west, that it would be launched soon
and that it would be aimed chiefly
against Britain. This seemed to be
borne out by ban yesterday on pri-
vate use of telephones and telegraph
services to foreign countries.
Observers noted that similar con-
trolls of communications were i'm
posed the day before the invasion of
Poland and second time immedi-
ately after the British and French
declarations of war.
Persons in informed circles merely
shrugged their shoulders when asked
whether it was justiflable to draw a
parallel.
Political circles speculated whether
an offensive might be loosed on land
at sea or in the air. These sources
indicated that Germany had precise
knowledge of the stations of British
troops in France and that German
air forces would try to strike terror
In the British expeditionary force.
Big Attack Is Prepared.
Preparations apparently were un-
Ger way also for combined air and
naval attacks on British seaportS and
coastal air bases. Gasoline storage
plants were said to be on Germany S
list as targets
Today's high command commu-
nique reported "livelier artillery ac-
tivity at several points" on the north
ern flank of the western front be-
tween the Moselle River and the
Wardnt Forest. Elsewhere there were
lated annoyance fire." the commu-
nique said.
German front pages, however, were
devoted primarily to the arrival here
of a Russian trade delegation and
the conclusion of a deal at Moscow
by which Russia agreed to deliver
100000 tons of fodder and grain to
Germany within the next two
months.
Adolf Hitlers Voelkischer Beo-
bachter, after praising what it
called quick, systematic Russian
German cooperation, said the
agreement would silence those who
doubted the seriousness and the
willingness of the German and So
Wet government for productive CO.
operation"
The newspaper added that rus
sian grain, together with imports
from Rumania, permits us to fatten