Oslo, Feb. 26.
Norway has replied to the British Note regarding the Altmark incident, in which a British warship took a number of British prisoners off the German ship Altmark on the Norwegian coast, The reply is contained in a statement presented to Lord Halifax, the British Foreign Secretary, by the Norwegian Legation in London.
It is Norway's reply to the British request for full information regarding the way in which the Norwegian authorities had carried out the search of the Altmark.
The statement says that when the Altmark was stopped by the second Norwegian torpedo-boat, the commander of which asked whether she had on board persons belonging to another belligerent navy or seamen who were subjects of another belligerent, the captain of the Altmark replied in the negative.
The Norwegian Government stresses that the Altmark had not called at Bergen or any other Norwegian port, as Lord Halifax apparently believed, and therefore, no question of a 24- hour time limit arose.
"When it was stressed from the British side that prisoners had been badly treated, ard that Norway ought, from humanitarian considerations, to A remarkable flight has just been made by a pilot of the Coastal Command, according to an Air Ministry communique, The pilot, who was one of the last to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, brought his plane and crew safely home after a three-hour crossing of the North Sea with a broken rudder which was damaged as the pilot dived to attack a Dornier near the Norwegian coast. The Dornier was too badly damaged to take advantage of the situation.
The British machine vibrated violently and would not fly straight, but by varying the revolutions of his two engines the pilot got his aircraft headed for a base on the east coast. The crew opened the cabin door and had their parachutes and life-jackets ready. After being unable to communicate with the base for two hours, the crew learned to their astonishment that they had flown across northern England in a blackout, and were over the Irish Sea. Finally, the machine landed crashing and straightening itself.
Since February 22, there had come to the knowledge of the British Government 128 cases in which unarmed British merchant ships and fishing vessels had been attacked by German aircraft, stated the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr. R. A. Butler, in reply to questions in the House of Commons today. Mr. Butler added that vessels were being armed for their own protection.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.