Evening star., 1939-12-31

the battle cruisers Invincible and
Inf1exible, just arrived after a STIR
ring dash from the North Sea, and
the battleship Canopus. In the
battle which followed the Scharn-
horst, Gneisenau and Leipzig were
sent to the bottom in quick success
sion and two German colliers were
captured.
Crushing Blow.
The battle of the Falklands proved
a crushing blow to the German raid
ing forces, but it by no means put a
stop to the practice. Late in the
fall of 1916, the German high COM
mand decided on a plan for attack
ing the trade routes in the outer
oceans with surface raiders. timing
the campaign to begin little more
than month in advance of unre-
stricted submarine warfare, which
eventually was to bring the United
States into the war on the allied
side.
The German command counted on
the fact that the use of only few
energetic commerce raiders would
require the concentration against
them OF allied cruiser forces of
greatly superior numbers to main
tain patrols and to convoy shipping.
They recalled that at one time no
fewer than 10 allied cruisers were
called into the search for the Emden
alone,
On November %, 1916, the German
cruiser Moewe, under command of
Count Nikolaus zu Donna Schlodien
slipped through the North Sea block
ade. followed a week later by the
Wolf, the former Hansa liner Wach-
fels, under Capt Karl Meyer, and on
December 81 by the most colorful
and romantic of all the sea raiders,
the full-rigged ship Seeadler, under
Count Felix Won Luckner.
The Moewe made her way up
through the North Sea and around
the Faroes into the North Allan
tic. Her first capture, the Brit
ish cold-storage steamer Voltaire,
was made halfway across the Atlan-
tic between Ireland and Newfound-
land, on December l. The Voltaire
was sunk. The Moewe held her posi-
ton for time on the northern trade
route. On December 4, she stopped
the Belgian relief ship Samland,
which was under German safe con-
duct, and destroyed the Samland's
wireless to delay the warning to the
allied vessels. She decided that she
could not maintain her position
much longer in face Of the search
certain to follow and started south
across the Great Circle routes, cap
turing five British steamers, Of
which three were destroyed.
One of the captured British
steamers, the Appam, was sent into
Hampton Roads, Va, with German
prize crew aboard, leading to q test
case which established principles Of
international law to which the
United States Government has
turned In connection with the cap
ture OF the City of Flint. The su-
preme Court, in the case Of the
Appam, called for release Of the ves-
sci and its cargo on the ground that
Germany had no right to send q
prize ship into an American port.
It was largely on a basis Of this
decision that Secretary Of State Hull
called upon Soviet Russia to return
the City Of Flint and her cargo to
her American crew.
Carried Prisoners.
The other captive, the British
steamer Yarrowdale, was sent back
to Germany with prisoners. A later
captive, the st. Theodore, was armed
In mid-ocean as an independent
raider and sent into the South At
lantic where she operated for six
weeks. 1ntercepting q wireless mes
sage from Bermuda which revealed
the allied search was becoming too
hot for comfort, the Moewe went
into the South Atlantic. Narrowly
escaping capture by British patrol,
she sank one Of the British colliers
and crossed to the East Atlantic. BY