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As many WFA members will be aware, early in the war, three Royal Navy cruisers were sunk off the Dutch coast by a German submarine. It has recently come to light that the wrecks are being disturbed in salvage operations.
A recent article appeared in Private Eye:
Dutch salvage contractors are cutting up the wrecks of three British warships in the North Sea which mark the graves of 1,459 Royal Navy sailors. The cruisers HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue and HMS Cressy were torpedoed by the German submarine U-9 off the Dutch coast on 22 September 1914.
The Royal Naval Association, archaeologists and diving organisations have protested about the looting and desecration of the wrecks, but neither the British nor Dutch government has taken any action to halt the salvage teams who are believed to be trying to retrieve copper, bronze and other valuable metals.
According to the BBC, A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "Her Majesty's government does not condone the unauthorised disturbance of any wreck containing human remains.
"The government continues to work closely with regional governments, with the aim of preventing inappropriate activity on military wrecks."
It is understood that matters are complicated by the fact that in the 1950s the wrecks were sold by the Government of the day. It may therefore be appropriate for the WFA to request information as to the numbers of other war graves that may have been sold.
Whilst the WFA has not traditionally become involved in campaigns, we feel that in this case it may be that members believe the WFA should try engage with the Government. To gauge members' thoughts on this, we have created a survey in which we invite all WFA members to take part.
