NORTH INDIA SHAKEN

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 128, 1 June 1935, Page 9

NORTH INDIA SHAKEN

FATE *q»F BALUCHISTAN

many Thousands killed

QUETTAI SUFFERS BADLY

(British Official Wlrelesi.)

(Received June 1, 11.12 a.m.)

| RUGBY, May 31. A disasLq ous earthquake involving, it is feared I, a death-roll of jnany thousands /occurred in British Baluchistan, L»i'Jia, early this morning. It is irrtjiossible as yet to estimate with even accuracy the total number of casualties- among the native population, but there can be little doultyl that in the congested native city alf Quetta, the capital of Baluchistcui, and in other towns the total will fye appallingly heavy. It is loijiwn, however, that the death-roll (included one officer and 43 of the Ji:oyal Air Force personnel, two British • officials and their families, ja radically the whole of the police "Voice of Quetta, and many subordinate civil and " railway officers, fjjetween 20 and 30 other airmen are^. also missing. NAHVIE QUARTERS SUFFER. Few detaills are as yet available owing to the destruction of telegraph lines, but -jvireless reports received state that in' Quetta, which has a population of SljilOO and is the seat of the administration as well as an important military centre, the native houses crashed liltei a pack of cards in the violence of Uhe shock burying their o,ccupants in • the debris. The earthquake was felt with equal severity in cSj/il lines and in the Eoyal Air Force an*:a which lie to the west of the city, bt^.t the military area lying to the north was only slightly damaged, and, sot far as is known, no military officers or their families were among the itsjiured. The casualties among the troops were also sH}':ht, and throughout the day the men fS>f the British and Indian regiments iia-vhi; been working feverishly to convey v-uccour and to establish some semblance of order among the thousands of dlistracted refugees. 'They succeeded in providing temporary accommodation j|,or many of the destitute in camps* which were hurriedly erected on thci racecourse and in the grounds of thq Residency. It was in the civil lines that Mr. Meredith Jone s, of the Indian Civil Service, his v ife and mother-in-law, and Mr. Franc] s, of the Irrigation Service, and his w ife lost their lives. Many official had extremely narrow escapes, amomlJ them Sir Norman Cator, Agent tta the Governor-General in Baluchistan.; MASTtrP(rt3 COMPLETELY DESTROYED. It isialso reported that the town of Mastung, 40 mil ?s south of Quetta, was completely desl royed, and that fourfifths of its pop^i ilation were killed, the same fate overt iking the neighbouring villages. Apart from tli e towns Baluchistan is sparsely popular ed, and no information is yet available1 as to the damage in the outlying dig tricts. Sir Norman <lator has broadcast a wireless appeal i to all provincial headquarters for thq; urgent dispatch of medical relief, quid immediately news of the disaster) was received doctors and nurses wertß dispatched by the Punjab Governs nent to the scene by the quickest available routes.