Evening star., 1940-01-02
Uruguay May Beach
Tacoma; Watch KEPT
To Prevent Escape
British Cruiser Ajox
Due in Montevideo
Tomorrow for Visit
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated PreSS.
MONTEVIDEO, Jan. 2.-Uru-
guayan officials today worked out
measures to make sure that the in
termed German freighter Tacoma
would remain a captive here for
the rest of the war and prepared
for visit from British man o
war.
Authorities said the cruiser Ajax
one of the three victors in the battle
with the German pocket battleship
Admiral Graf Spec December 13
would arrive tomorrow for 48-hour
stay to refuel and provision.
The British colony arranged a
welcome for the ship and crew. She
will bring Rear Admiral Henry
Harwood, who directed the battle
against the Graf Spec.
In the harbor Uruguay's minia-
ture navy stood guard against a
possible break for freedom by the
8268-ton Tacoma, while officials
prepared to intern her crew and
dispose of the cargo of oranges,
grapefruit and nuts. One possibil-
ity discussed was that the freighter
would be beached.
TugbOat Keeps Watch.
Capt. Hans Know submitted yes
terday to internment of his ship
at expiration of a Uruguyan ulti-
matum which had confronted the
Tacoma with a choice of taking to
sea in the face of British warships
or becoming prisoner for duration
of the European war.
The port tugboat La Valleja with
20 naval seamen aboard laid along
side the Tacoma through the night
and a naval officer kept watch
aboard to see that the Tacoma S
engines remained silent With him
on the ship we're the captain and
crew of 60.
The Tacoma's radio equipment
was dismantled as a further guar
antee against a break for the open
sea.
Foreign Minister Alfredo Guani
said the Tacoma would be moved
from her anchorage just inside the
Montevideo breakwater to a dock
within the next two days pending
decision on what he characterized
as her ultimate destination"
Interned Without Resistance.
Without any show of resistance
such as the self-destruction of the
German pocket battleship Admiral
Graf Spec, the Tacoma was in
termed yesterday morning on the
grounds that she acted as an auxil-
iary for the Graf Spec during an
"act of war"
The freighter had picked up crew.
men of the battleship when Capt
Hans Langsdorff dynamited her In
the shallow Rio de la Plata estuary
rather than accept internment o,
take his damaged ship to sea to face
British cruisers which had driven
the Graf Spec into refuge here.
The behavior of the freighter. ac-
cording to the reasoning of Uru-
guayan officials, made the Tacoma
liable to the same rules of neutral
ity as the Graf Spec. Allied
diplomatic pressure on Uruguay had
been constant.
To Be Sent to Interior,
The Tacoma had steamed from q
point just off shore to anchorage
just within the outer breakwatel
when so Uruguayan marines boarded
| her yesterday morning in advance
of an official party bearing intern.
ment papers to be filed out and
signed.
Once the papers were signed, Capt
Know and his men were given two
days in which to wind up shipboaro
affairs before they are sent into the
Uruguayan interior to live until the
end of the war-just as about l0O(
seamen from the Graf Spec were
treated at Buenos Aires.
Capt. Langsdorf of the Graf Spec
who had accompanied his men or
barges to the Argentine capital
! however, cheated internment BY
shooting himself.
The Ajax and Achilles were the
cruisers which finally drove the
Graf Spec into Montevideo, but i,
was the Ajax and the cruiser Shrop.
shire which were believed to have
remained off the Rio de Ia Plata
estuary while the Tacoma case was
| being settled.