ALL ROADS BARRED

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 177, 21 April 1924, Page 6

ALL ROADS BARRED

MOTORISTS HELD UP THREAT TO MAKE FORCIBLE PASSAGE By Telegraph—Press Association. —Copyright. Los Angeles, April 18. Eastbound motorists numbering 1600 persons, in 600 motors, are stranded at Needles (Arizona) as a result of two fresh outbreaks of foot and mouth disease, which started in Southern California. 'The Arizona authorities have accordingly barred vehicular traffic, alleging that motors carry germs of the disease, thus imperilling stock which passes in their wake. In the meantime the tourists are suffering hardship due to a shortage of food and water, while awaiting fumigation of their conveyances at the State boundary. All roads, including various bridgeheads at the Colorado River, have been barred, causing long congested queues of vehicles. A considerable number of the marooned motorists are pressed by the scarcity of food and a shortage of funds. They held a roadside mass meeting and warned the guards that they intended to pass, despite the ruling. The State authorities are accordingly preparing to summon the militia upon the first reported effort to make a forcible passage- —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. TALES OF PRIVATION (Rec. April 20, 11.45 p.m ) New York, April 19. A Los Angeles message says that a semblance of peace has been effected on the California-Arizona border by the Governor of Arizona temporarily lifting the quarantine to permit four hundred tourists to proceed eastward. This action somewhat relieved the heavy pressure, which still continues because at least 1200 motorists still remain waiting their turn at the fumigating plant which has been specially erected on the Californian side by tourists to expedite their passage. In the meantime the wrath of the travellers is increasing n view of a statement by the Secretary of Agriculture (Mr. Wallace) declaring that existent Federal quarantine measures obviate the necessity of supplemental State rulings. Tales of privation continue to come from the Californian tourist camp, where a baby is reported to have been bora. The general suffering _is aggravated by intense heat during the dav and severe cold at night. The citizens cf Arizmn. have organised relief and are sending food supplies across the line.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.