The First Lord of the Admiralty announced on Monday that
another convoy had been destroyed in the North Sea about midday on the 12th inst. Two destroyers, H.M.S. Pellew ' and H.M.S. Partridge,' with four armed trawlers, were convoying one British WI five neutral vessels to Norway. They were attacked not far from the Norwegian coast by four enemy destroyers, which sank the ' Partridge,' the trawlers, and the merchantmen, damaged the 'Pellew,' and made their way home with forty-nine naval prisoners. All the neutral crews were saved by our patrols or in their own boats. The British cruisers ordered out to protect tho convoy against surface vessels were not oft the scene ; an inquiry into the causes of their absence is being held. Early on the same day enemy destroyers sank a steam trawler and two neutral ships off the Tyne. It is to be expected that the enemy should make occasional raids of this kind with his light craft, but the failure of our cruisers to come to the rescue of the convoy has yet to be explained.
