LOST FRENCH LINER

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 23 May 1932, Page 5

LOST FRENCH LINER

PUBLIC GRAVELY DISTURBED CAUSES OF FIRE OUTBREAKS SEARCHING INQUIRY URGED MISSING NOW FORTY-EIGHT (United Press Association —By Electric Telegrapb Copyright.) LONDON, May 21. Public opinion throughout France is gravely disturbed by the Georges Philippar liner tragedy, and there is an insistent demand for a most searching inquiry into the cause of the fire and the handling; of the situation after the fire was discovered. This will undoubtedly take place when Captain Vicq and his officers return.

Captain Vicq’s disclosure that the flames broke out simultaneously at several widely different points, is regarded as mysterious, especially as the naval engineers who built the ship deny the possibility of simultaneous shortcircuits or even any short circuit, owing to the careful insulation of'the wires.

The Messageries Maritimes Company's offices at Paris are still haunted by friends ,of relatives anxious about the missing passengers now said to number 48.