Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1939-12-21
Russians Bomb He|sinki Hospital
As Raids on Finn Towns Continue;
British Map Fishing Fleet Defense
Aiming Of Vessels
Studied as IS
Are Attacked

by tne ASSOCIATED TTeSS.
LONDON, Dec. 2l.-Great Britain
assembled ships and fighting planes
today to protect her unarmed North
Sea fishing fleet as a result of Ger
man aerial attacks in which IS YES
sells have been bombed, torpedoed
or machine-gunned in three days.
Defensive arming also was con-
sidered for the fishermen, on whom
insular Britain depends for an i'm
portant supplement to her meat
supply.
The crews of traWlers engaged in
minesWeeping and anti-submarine
activities will be given a hard
lying" bonus, retroactive to the out
break of the war, it was disclosed
by Godfrey Shakespeare, parlia-
mentary secretary of the admiralty.
Such bonuses are paid for excep-
tlonally difficult. dangerous and I'M
comfortable work.
The admiralty called for enlist
ment OF telegraph and wireless op-
orators until the end of the period
OF the present emergency"
Flares Attract Crowds.
The Evening News said it under
stood that mysterious flares which
lighted the skies for miles off the
east coast and attracted crowds OF
watchers were dropped by British
planes to aid in night search for
submarines.
Strict secrecy surrounded a meet
ing yesterday between Admiral Jean
Darlan. supreme commander of
French naval forces. and Winston
Churchill, Britain's first lord of the
admiralty.
But with anxiety growing over
the safety of the British fishing in
dustry and allied naval operations
increasingly vigorous, their discus
sion was linked with the forays on
fishing trawlers.
The admiralty assailed the at
tacks as an act of "senseless inhu-
mainly and said only three of the
attacks, all unsuccessful. were on
navy vessels. Two others. it said
were on neutrals.
Mine Sinkings Drop.
Mine sinkings decreased, mean
while, only one victim in British
waters being reported in "a hours.
1t was the 1,449-ton Swedish
steamer Mars, sunk of the north-
east coast yesterday with seven
persons missing and six rescued.
The 1,323-ton Swedish steamer
Adolf Bratt was reported sunk by
mine off the Netherlands island
OF Terschelling Tuesday, however.
and an unidentified ship also was
reported mined off the Netherlands
coast. In Copenhagen the news
paper Berlingske Tidende reported
the Estonian steamer Uko sunk
tuesday in the North Sea by a
German plane.
The German liner Cap Norte. a
l3.6l5-ton vessel and one of the
fastest in the South American trade,
was brought to British port yes
, terday as a prize. The liner was
captured October IL in the Atlantic.
British Praise LangsdOrff.
British newspapers praised tile
scuttled Graf Specs commander,
Capt. Hans Langsdorff, who took
his life yesterday.
1T is tragedy said the London
Times, for such men today that
they cannot serve their country save
in the livery of a master whom in
their hearts they must despise.'
Meanwhile, the British Press As
ISOLATION disclosed that the 1887
ton British liner Samaria, en- route
to the United States with a large
number of American passengers,
escaped disastrous collision with a
Canadian troopship when they
brushed together in an Atlantic fog
The liner turned back and was
reported early yesterday to have
reached port, somewhat damaged
but with no one injured.
The press association said today
that the superstructure of the troop
ship also was slightly damaged.