FROST AND FLU.

Grey River Argus, 15 February 1929, Page 5

FROST AND FLU.

EUROPE’S DEATH ROLL Nearly 20,000. (Austraian & N.Z. Cable Assn.) PARIS, February 13. Statistics collected throughout Europe show that deaths due to the so-called ice-age winter; are approaching 20,000. Th re are at least 2500 deaths from pneumonic influenza in France alone, and several hundred deaths from drowning and shipwrecks. More than a hundred are reported frozen to death in Europe. Today’s fl'ports show little abatement of the freezing. Nancy registered 54 degrees of frost. The river Meurthe is frozen. English Rivers Frozen. 100 CARS SNOWED IN. LONDON COLDER THAN SPITZBERGEN. LONDON, February 13. Snow fell practically throughout England to-day. Several trains had to be dug out, and the passengers transferred by road. Many roads in the Scotland area have been blocked, and over one hundred cars have been snowed in. The temperature is still falling tonight. The river Wey from Weybridge to the Thames, is frozen, and the rivers Lee and Kennett are also frozen in parts, while ice is forming on the Thames at Caversham. An unusual feature of ice visitation in Europe is that Iceland is seventeen and Spitzbergen ten degrees warmer than London. Then were strange scenes in Piccadilly from midnight to dqwn, whi n twenty fire engines and 130 firemen were fighting a fire at the Trocadfcro Restaurant. The firemen ’• uniforms wefl ■ frozen stiff. Huge icicles formed on the face of the building and on the 70ft water towers used to combat the flames. The wat> r freezing as it left the hoses Jell on the Arc as hailstones. damage from the fire was combined to the upper storey of the restaurant, though much destruction was caused by water.

Thirty Degrees of Frost. NEARLY ALL OVER GERMANYBERLIN February 13. The River Elbe is frozen over from Dresden to Hamburg. Over thirty degrees of fifost hus been registered in Western, Southern and Central Germany. Aeroplanes are now carrying food aad spirits to ice hound ships in the Baltic Sea. Fog is adding to difficulties. A Weisbaden report states the eold is so severe at Landau that several French sentries nave collapsed and been taken to the hospital seriously ill. One sentry was discovered dead standing at bis post, his rifle clutched in his hand. The British Rhine Army sentries have been issued with pullovers and coats. French River Freezing Up. PAWNSHOPS ORDERED TO DISGORGE. PARIS, February 13. The Director of State Pawnshops has ordered that all eiderdowns, blan kets and woollen shawls shall be re stored gratis to their owners. The Seine River is almost blocker with ice above The Marne River is freezing, while all of the rivers as far west as Cher bourg are becoming icebound. The citv of Lyons is practically cut

off. The spectacle of Frenchmen going about masked such as in Sydney In 1919, as a precaution against inflttenza is likely to result from the decision of the French Academy of Medicine. Members are alarm'd at the growing proportions of epidemic deaths, increasing from 720 in December to 1362 in January. Professor Ma.-cn.ani urged that men should wear ‘ ‘ a species of fine gauz muzzle on mouth and nose, such as was done successfully in Japan. Wo- ' men. should wear veils.” The Academy officially adopted the suggestion. The authoriti s are pinsteSfcug posters all over Paris urging people “tq protect the nose and meuth with several thicknesses of gtuze.” IN THE BALKANS. 43 DEGREES BELOW ZERO. PRAGUE, February 13 Temperatures in Jugoslavia remain thirteen below zero. Boumania is suffering more severely with a temperature of 45 degrees be low zero. The Berlin-Bucharest trains are three (lays overdue. BIG SNOW STORM IN ITALY. ROME, February 13. Heavy snowstorms prevail in north «*>*»<! Central Italy. There is wide spread interruption jn the train sorrtees. Several towns are three feet deep in snow. Avalanches havle occurred in the province of Ancona. The snow is 20 ft,/ 'feet high, blocking ita railway. Snow now is falling in Rome. t. FREE COAL AT BUDAPEST. BUDAPEST, February 13. T»n thousand people to-day partici-

pated in a scramble far free coal, which was distributed by the Government to relieve the fireless homes. Fifty people collapsed and were taken to the hospital with frozen hands, ears and feet. Remarkable Prediction. OF FRENCH PRIEST. VERIFIED BY THE SNAP. PARIS, February 14. The present very frigid weather over Europe verifies in a remarkable fashion the prediction made by M. Abbe Moreux, the famous Director of the Bourges Observation. The Abbe made the forecast in January of 1928, stating: “The River Thames will freeze over in the winter of 1929. Western Europe will experience conditions somewhat akin to those of the Ice Age.”