London, Oct. 16.
Naval circles here declared today that the German radio announcement claiming that H.M.S. Repulse had been torpedoed by a German submarine is just another piece of fiction invented by the Reich's propaganda services as was also the report that H.M.S. Hood had been bombed.
Baseless German allegations that the Royal Navy had suffered heavy damage from U-boat attacks were vigorously denied by the Admiralty in an official communique issued last night.
"Since September 26," it pointed out, "German broadcasting stations have continually claimed that H. Ark Royal had been sunk. To allay any possible doubt which might caused by this untrue statement, the Admiraly desires once more to reaffirm the fact that the Ark Royal has not been sunk or damaged in any way.
Other German reports alleged that several British warships had been sunk or damaged, namely that: a cruiser of 10,000 tons was sunk off the south-west coast of Scotland, two aircraft-carriers were sunk, one destroyer was seriously damaged, the capital ship H.M.S. Hood (42,100 tons) was badly damaged and put out of service for several months, and a certain number of cruisers and destroyers was sunk or damaged last week during a naval encounter off authoritatively declared." the Admiralty asserted, "that the- British cruiser alluded to, off the coast of Scotland, was a patrol ship, which was not sunk; the Hood was never hit; only one aircraft-carrier, H.M.S. Courageous, was sunk, and the other one, H.M.S. Ark Royal, was never even hit and neutral testimony of this was given by the Naval Attache of the American Embassy in London who came on board a few days after the German allegations were made; no British destroyer was hit by German forces since the beginning of the war, nor were any cruisers.
"During the engagement off Norway, German planes, despite long bombing, failed to hit any British ship," the Admiralty's communique concluded.—Havas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.