Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1941-06-01
US. Embassy 10 Probe
Holding Of Drivers
From Liner canaan
119 Other Americans
Allowed to Enter Spain
En- Route to Lisbon
NJ the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain, at the
French Frontier, May 31.-A United
States Embassy official said today
he would 60 Monday to Biarritz in
occupied France to find out why 81
American ambulance drivers were
detained while 1i9 other American
survivors from the Egyptian liner
canaan were permitted to enter
Spain en- route to Lisbon.
The ambulance men were confined
to a hotel in Biarritz. A repre-
sentative of the Berlin Foreign Of
flee ordered them held, saying their
cases would be decided in Berlin.
The Americans who crossed over,
including two ambulance drivers
who apparently were released by
mistake because their passports
were marked student" reported
that Germans referred repeatedly to
bad treatment" they said was given
German sailors arrested in Ameri-
can ports.
Reaching Spain among the sur
vivors of the ship, torpedoed by a
German raider in the South At
lantic, were six pregnant American
women.
Zamzam Sinking More Pleasant.
w. H. Edwards and his wife Edna,
missionaries, of Detroit, who were
en- route to their post in - Bel
gian Congo, also were aboard the
British liner Athena when 1t was
sunk the first week of the war.
They said the sinking OF the Zam-
Fam was more pleasant" since she
was hit at dawn instead OF at night.
The men, forced to leave their
baggage in Biarritz, said the ship
was unable to notify the Germans
of her identity because the wireless
was damaged by the first shell.
c. j. Murphy, Fortune magazine
correspondent, said the Zamzam
captain tried to signal with a fash
light. All passengers were asleep
when the attack began.
One of the women, Mrs. Lillian
Danielson of Lindsborg, Kans., said
she and her six children were thrown
into the water when their lifeboat
capsized, but all were picked up by
q lifeboat from the German rescue
ship, Dresden.
Priests Decline Offer.
Others who entered Spain in
cluded a Mrs. Russell, the American
wife of a Canadian who went to
Bordeaux with other British and
Canadian survivors but later re-
turned to ST. Jean de Luz to leave
with the Americans.
Seventeen American-born priests
of the French-C Canadian brotherhood
who we're travelling on Canadian
passports declined a German offer to
release them, saying they preferred
to remain in France.
The American ambulance drivers
were en- route to serve with Gen.
forces in Africa.
The Americans stopped here
briefly on their way to Lisbon and,
probably New York. Some of the
missionaries among the group which
came out objected to being returned
to the United States. saying they
wanted to go on to their original
destinations in Africa, but pre-
sumably they will be repatriated to
the United States anyway.
An American-bOrn Dachshund
named willy" belonging to the
missionary LaSsiter family and
rescued from the canaan, was with
the party here.
Tell of 30 Days at Sea.
Six tobacco buyers and more than
100 members of the missionary
families told of their 80 days at
sea aboard the Dresden, the Ger
man merchant ship which took them
after the canaan was sunk.
Women and younger children
were assigned to cabins and mat
tresses-some of which were moved
from the Zamzam-in the salons
forward. The children from 3 to II
years of age joined the men in the
after holds.
Martin Conboy of WeStfield, N. j.,
who was en- route to Johannesburg
for an American mattress factory,
helped the men to make mattresses
from cotton they found in the hold.
The women were allowed to visit
the men from 10 am. to noon and
at other hours they were permitted
to wave to each other or shout
across the intervening deck space.
They said they were we'll treated.
They said the German lookouts
sighted British conveys four times
off the French coast, and these
incidents delayed their arrival by
five days and gave us plenty Of
excitement"
Children and adults were given
one slice of bread and butter for
breakfast soup at midday and an
other slice of bread and butter in
the evening. When a committee
protested to the captain about the
food two days before docking, chill
dren and pregnant women were
allowed rations Of milk.
Supplied With Clothing.
The released Americans are due
In Lisbon tomorrow night. They
were supplied by the Red Cross
with needed clothing.
William P Fix, who said he was
q former professional football
player, could not find pair of
trousers big enough in San Sebas-
tian, so he welcomed a topcoat to
hide large holes in the seat of his
trousers.
He lost 80 pounds in 80 days on
the trip from the scene of the Zam-
cams sinking to Bordeaux.
One of the Zamzam's lifeboats,
whose passengers included a Mr..
and Mrs. Hall, missionaries from
Upland, Calf, was said to have
sunk because its hull was riddled
in the Smelling of the liner.
They were fished from the water
by other lifeboats and launch
from the Nazi raider.