FOUL PLAY SUSPECTED

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 297, 12 September 1934, Page 9

FOUL PLAY SUSPECTED

Fire on Liner Morro Castle

EVIDENCE AT INQUIRY News of Outbreak Withheld , For Hour % ADMISSION ABOUT CREW By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. (Received September 11, 7.35 p.m.)

New York, September 10.

Acting Captain W. F. Warms, of the Morro Castle, in evidence at the United States Government inquiry into the fire, said on Monday that he suspected the blaze was started by an incendiarist, basing his belief on tlie fact that an incendiary attempt was made on the boat on its previous voyage. The company’s formal report on that fire, produced at the bearing, agreed witli the details of Captain Warms’s story that he found charred paper on the cargo. He said that lightning did not hit the ship. The first word of fire lie had was at 2 a.m., when the deck watch informed him. "I sounded the general alarm a few minutes before 3 o’clock,” he added. < According to a report from Havana, Captain Oscar Hernandez, Chief of the Havana Port Police, said on Monday: "The Morro Castle fire seems to,have been the work of Communists, apparently of a passenger who boarded the ship with fire-making chemicals in his baggage. - ’ Acting-Captain Warms told of many wild parties ou the boat. He said he understood that six young girls were so intoxicated that it was necessary to carry them from their staterooms. He added that he was continually on the bridge after the death of Captain Wilmot, as the weather was rough and visibility poor. He was informed about 2 a.m. of the lire in the library, and sent the first mate to investigate. He himself never left the bridge during the entire episode, basing his judgment on the reports of subordinates. The alarm was withheld for a full hour in the belief that the llames could be controlled. He denied reports that the lifeboats left the ship without orders, aud said that' the panic was created by the passengers, many of whom refused to get into the lifeboats. According to the first and second mates, the fire was in the library. Their efforts to' extinguish it were futile. Then an explosion occurred in a locker which must have contained petrol, kerosene or other inflammables. At once the fire whs completely out of control, and the crew proceeded to rescue work on their individual initla five, some handling themselves well, and, he was forced to admit, others poorly. ANOTHER LINER FIRE Officers’ Allegations New York, September 10. A message from Balboa, in the Canal Zone, states that several officers of the Grace liner Santa Rita, which made port under her own power on Monday with a fire in the hold, said: “The fire here and also on the Morro Castle was the work of an international radical organisation.” Carbon dioxide gas was rushed 50 miles out to the by tlie Canal Zone tug Favourite and helped to check the fire, which was working slowly through the cargo. Captain Stevenson sa I that the fire was under control. EXPLOSIONS OCCUR Beached Morro Castle New York, September 10. A message from Asbury Park states that two explosions in the wreck of the Morro Castle on Monday decided officials to withdraw searchers for fear of further blasts. The officials feel that the are sjiould be allowed, to burn out before the operations are continued.