CATASTROPHE IN CHINA

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 30 July 1927, Page 5

CATASTROPHE IN CHINA

A TERRIBLE EARTHQUAKE HUGE LOSS OF LIFE. MANY VILLAGES DESTROYED. BY CA BUB—PRESS ASSOCIATION— COPYRIGHT SHANGHAI, July 28. After a lapse of two months, owing to the lack of communication resulting from the existing disorders in China, a letter from Monseigneur Buddebrot, Vicar Apostolic of the Hanchow-Kan.su province, supplies details of a terrible earthquake on Alay 23. He estimated that 100,000 people had perished. 'Hie survivors were living in huts practically without food or clothing. At Twon Lisiang 100 people were in a church when it collapsed, and many were killed, including a Mother Superior. In other parts of the town there was a wholesale collapse of houses, and thousands were buried. Many other towns and villages within a radius of 70 kilometres were destroyed, and thousands perished. The important town of Tumexze was practically buried beneath a moving mountain.

Following the first disastrous earthquake shocks occurred daily; adding terror to the distress and destruction, which missionaries were working heroicallv and feverishly t'o alleviate. The letter adds that the full extent of the havoc is not known, hut describes the visitation as among the world’s greatest catastrophes.