MUCH ALARM. EARTHQUAKE SHOCKS IN ITALY AND AUSTRIA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 12, 15 January 1909, Page 7

MUCH ALARM. EARTHQUAKE SHOCKS IN ITALY AND AUSTRIA.

BELIEF FUNDS. PRAYERS IN ALL THE CHURCHES. By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright (Received January 15, 8.25 a.m.) LONDON, 14th January. The Mansion House fund for the relief of the sufferers by the Sicilian earthquake totals £93,000. China has contributed £6250, the Transvaal Government £5000, and Spain £7000. ROME, 14th January. The Pope has directed prayers to be said in all the churches in Italy for cessation of the earthquake. LIGHT SHOCKS IN VIENNA. OTHER PLACES AFFECTED. ROME, 14th January. Light shocks occurred early on Wednesday morning in Vienna, and at many points in Southern Austria, extending from Saraievo, the capital of Bosnia, to Trieste, at the head of the Adriatic Sea. Among the places affected are Botzen, in the Tyrol, Meran, a health resort fifteen miles north-west of Botzen, and Pola, the chief naval station of Austria-Hungary, about fifty-five miles south-east of Trieste. IN FLORENCE AND VENICE. PANIC-STRICKEN PEOPLE. ROME, 14tn January. Shocks were also felt at Ravenna, Pisa, Lucca, Pistoia, Perugia, Ferrart, Verona, Reggionel, Emilia, Belluna, and Rimini. Much alarm was occasioned but little damage was done, though the shocks lasted from eight to ten seconds. At Florence many persons abandoned their houses, while at Venice numbers of the inhabitants fled to the piazza of St. Mark. [The Basilica of St. Mark is a famous church founded in 830 to receive the relics of the evangelist brought from Alexandria. It is the most famed Byzantine structure of Western Europe, cruciform in plan, with five great domes or pendentives, and many smaller domes in subordinate positions. The interior, though it measures only 205 by 164 feet, is one of the most impressive in the world.] DUKE OF CONNAUGHT AT ? MESSINA. THE DESTRUCTION WROUGHT. ROME, 14th January. H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, British Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, has visited Messina. He considers the destruction wrought by the earthquake in the city and surroundings surpasses anything imaginable. It seemed as if the place had been passed through a sieve, like giound wheat.