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The day in dispatches
Filed through the day, as it happened
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Britain and Germany give opposite accounts of the Athenia sinking
This newspaper was given two incompatible accounts of the sinking of the Athenia today.
22:45GMT
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Churchill unable to tell MPs how many died in the Athenia
LONDON Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, was unable to tell the Commons this afternoon how many passengers and crew died in the Athenia. Asked for the figures by a member, he said he had given the House all the information in his possession.
22:00GMT
22:00GMT
Hertzog loses the neutrality vote and his future as Prime Minister is uncertain
CAPE TOWN General Hertzog is still Prime Minister of South Africa tonight after the House of Assembly rejected his neutrality policy by 13 votes, but it is uncertain how long he will remain in office. He left the chamber just after 21:00.
21:15GMT
21:15GMT
South Africa's parliament rejects neutrality by 80 votes to 67
CAPE TOWN South Africa's House of Assembly has rejected the Prime Minister's motion that the Union stay neutral, by 80 votes to 67.
20:30GMT
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Britain's claim of damage to two German battleships is unconfirmed
LONDON Britain claims several direct hits and two German battleships severely damaged in this afternoon's raid. The claim may well be true, but it is unconfirmed.
19:15GMT
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British aircraft bomb German warships at Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel
LONDON British aircraft have bombed units of the German fleet at Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel, London announced this evening.
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Contraband control and the Athenia attack will both raise shipping costs
NEW YORK Britain began contraband control today and published its schedule of goods. On the same day the First Lord of the Admiralty said the Athenia had been torpedoed without warning. Both developments will cost the shipping trade money.
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Churchill tells the Commons the Athenia was torpedoed without warning
LONDON The liner Athenia was torpedoed without the slightest warning, Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, told the Commons this afternoon. He said that on his present information she was not an auxiliary cruiser. Asked how many had died, he said he had given the House everything he had. He made no reference to the German denial issued in Berlin this morning. It is the fullest account so far of what the Admiralty knows.
The First Lord of the Admiralty, in the House of Commons
Official text
I regret to inform the House that a signal was received in the Admiralty at about 11 p.m. last night giving the information that the steamship "Athenia" had been torpedoed in a position about 200 miles north-west of Ireland at 8.59 p.m. Orders had already been given by local Commanders for destroyers to proceed to her assistance, and by shortly after midnight four destroyers were proceeding at high speed towards the position.
15:45GMT
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France says military operations against Germany have begun
PARIS France has begun operations against Germany by land, at sea and in the air, the Ministry of War said in a communiqué this afternoon. The communiqué names no sector or formation and reports no results.
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Roosevelt's neutrality broadcast leaves out the arms embargo
WASHINGTON President Roosevelt spoke for about twelve minutes on American neutrality last night without mentioning the arms embargo.
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Fighting continues across Poland as German and Polish accounts disagree
WARSAW Fighting continued across Poland today along a front running from the East Prussian border to the Carpathian foothills.
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Japan will stay out of the European war and concentrate on China
HONG KONG Japan will stay out of the conflict in Europe and will devote its energies to resolving the China incident, the Japanese Cabinet said in a statement issued in Tokyo this evening.
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Berlin denies a German submarine sank the Athenia
BERLIN The German Foreign Office says no German submarine sank the Athenia.
12:00GMT
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Britain begins contraband control and creates a Ministry of Economic Warfare
LONDON Britain has brought contraband control into force against trade with Germany and created a Ministry of Economic Warfare to run it.
11:15GMT
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Conflicting reports on who holds the Polish Post Office in Danzig
STOCKHOLM It is unclear who holds the Polish Post Office in Danzig, four days after fighting began there.
09:00GMT
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Air Ministry says leaflet aircraft have returned, with none lost to enemy action
LONDON RAF aircraft that dropped leaflets over north-western Germany overnight have returned, and none was lost to enemy action, the Air Ministry says.
08:00GMT
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A blackout warden checks Chalcot Road on the first night of the war
LONDON An air-raid warden walked down Chalcot Road just after 05:00 this morning with his torch masked to a slit, and found three windows showing light.
05:30GMT
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New Zealand's declaration of war is formally dated to match Britain's
WELLINGTON New Zealand's Governor-General has signed the formal proclamation recording the country's state of war with Germany.
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Roosevelt: this nation will remain a neutral nation
WASHINGTON President Roosevelt told the American people in a broadcast on Sunday night that the United States will remain a neutral nation. He spoke from the White House at 22:00 Eastern time, in his fourteenth fireside address and his first since war broke out in Europe. He said a neutrality proclamation is being prepared, and that a second, required under the Neutrality Act, will follow. The text reached London and Paris by wire within the hour.
The President of the United States
Official text
Let no man or woman thoughtlessly or falsely talk of America sending its armies to European fields. At this moment there is being prepared a proclamation of American neutrality. This would have been done even if there had been no neutrality statute on the books, for this proclamation is in accordance with international law and in accordance with American policy. This will be followed by a proclamation required by the existing Neutrality Act.
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Athenia attack upsets the Admiralty's assumptions about the submarine threat
LONDON The Admiralty has worked through the night on the implications of the attack on the Athenia, which was hit in the Western Approaches at 20:59 on Sunday.
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Four destroyers sent to the torpedoed liner Athenia
LONDON Four Royal Navy destroyers are heading at high speed towards the liner Athenia, which is reported to have been torpedoed about 200 miles north-west of Ireland.
Where things stood at the start of the day
- Poland
- The German offensive goes into a fourth day, Warsaw has been bombed, and the Polish account of where the line runs cannot be checked against the German one. The Westerplatte garrison has still not surrendered, and no Allied soldier is in Poland.
- The Atlantic
- The passenger liner Athenia, carrying more than 1,400 people, has been struck north-west of Ireland, and rescue vessels are converging on her position. The cause of the explosion has not been established, nobody has claimed responsibility, and the passengers have not been counted.
- The air war
- RAF aircraft crossed into Germany on the first night of the war carrying leaflets, not bombs, and the Air Ministry has not yet confirmed their return. London's first air-raid warning, sounded minutes after the declaration, proved false.
- Britain and France
- Britain has been at war since 11 a.m. British Summer Time, France since 5 p.m. Paris time. A War Cabinet has formed with Winston Churchill back at the Admiralty, conscription now covers the male population, and the evacuation of the cities is nearly finished.
- The Empire
- Australia, New Zealand and India are at war alongside Britain, and South Africa is divided and has not decided. Its parliament votes tomorrow, with the government's own survival resting on the result, and Canada's meets on 7 September.
- Neutral nations
- Ireland has confirmed it will not fight in this war and Italy remains outside the conflict despite her pact with Germany. The United States has not yet stated its position.
Background · prize rules and submarine warfare
What the law says about sinking a passenger ship
Both London and Berlin have invoked international law in the past twenty-four hours. They are talking about the same rules, and Churchill read them into the Commons record this afternoon.
Germany agreed in 1935 to abide by Part IV of the London Naval Treaty of 1930, in perpetuity, and was among the first powers to do so. That is the undertaking Churchill quoted to the House this afternoon.
The rule has two parts. Submarines are bound by the same law as surface warships. And except where a merchant ship persistently refuses to stop when summoned, or actively resists search, she may not be sunk without her passengers, crew and papers first being placed in a place of safety.
The qualification is the part that matters here. Ships' boats do not count as a place of safety unless sea conditions, proximity of land, or another vessel able to take people aboard make them so.