LITHUANIA: Pirates

The flagship of the Lithuanian Navy is a chugging, wallowing armed minesweeper, the President Smetona. Last week Lithuanians were shamefaced and vexed when a pirate ship, the Hassan Birr, which has been terrorizing Baltic seacoast villages for over a month, escaped for the eleventh time, after being sighted, fired at and chased by the wallowing President Smetona. Fisherfolk who have been piratically molested by the Hassan Birr describe her crew as a rollicking, unblood-thirsty gang of Finns, Poles, Germans, Swedes led by a fierce red-bearded swashbuckler who claims to be a Lithuanian.