TYPHOON AT HONGKONG

Evening Star, Issue 22805, 13 November 1937, Page 2

TYPHOON AT HONGKONG

SEVEREST EVER KNOWN It is typical of weather vagaries that the Colony of Hongkong, having survived the longest and most dangerous period of the normal typhoon season without even the suggestion of a “ blow,” should be visited by a storm described by the Royal Observatory as the greatest in severity and destructive power which has ever struck those* shores. Confirmatory evidence of this estimate of yesterday morning’s rampage of the elements was presented in appalling abundance and confusion. The extent of “ minor ” damage in every household, shop, office, clubhouse was almost incredible. The cost of reparation will run into millions of dollars. Reports of major catastrophes, a great fire in the waterfront, destroying ten buildings and taking at least twenty lives, .skip after ship ashore or sunk, including such empresses of the ocean as the Asama Mam and the Conte Verde, of wild rareerings of ships out of control, the An Lee which hit H.M.S. Cumberland, H.M.S. Duchess andH. Diamond before depositing herself sternlirst on the P.raya and the Talamha which carried the Asama Maru and Conte Verde to mishap, of the Taipo Market collapse in which fifty died, came in grimly speedy succession. There were, too, stories of gallantry and heroism, representing only a fraction of the real epics of the night. Much is left to the imagination: as, for instance, the atmosphere aboard the Van Heutsz as she swept down the harbour to Green Island’s rocks, with I, souls aboard. Can high enough tribute he paid to her officers who, with all their other anxieties, maintained control of that huge passenger roll under such conditions? Yet their seamanship and resource were duplicated in forty, fifty ships and taken as _ a matter of course. It is a spirit, perhaps typical of tvphoons. When the gale lias blown itself out, and we have survived, there are few. either afloat or ashore, who can altogether quash a sneaking feeling that they have been through an experience something of a lark. ‘ Overland China Mail,’ September 4.