MANY STARVING

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 7 September 1923, Page 5

MANY STARVING

PITIABLE CONDITIONS IN JAPAN

MILLIONS INVOLVED IN DISASTER

»V CABLB—PBBBB ABSOCIATION-COPYBIGH11 LONDON, Sept. 5. T A Tamioka wireless message states that six million, people are homeless in Japan.

A Kobe wireless says the refugees describe Yokohama as a cbarnel house. The canals on, the waterfront are filled with dead and the stench of decomposing bodies in the violent heat is unbearable.

An early report that two hundred foreigners lost their lives in Yokohama is confirmed. Those killed were mostly caught shopping in the down town district. British and American, residents who escaped are gathering the bodies of their confreres for burial at sea. -

The remnants of the Chinese population in Yokohama are gathered under *b& Bluff without food or shelter, and th«*r condition is pitiable. The French ambassador walked from. Tokio to Yokohama and boarded the French steamer Andre le Bon.

One foreigner on board the same ship graphically describes the disaster. With the sinking of the land in lower "Yokohama water spurted through innumerable cracks in the earth, and a foot of water soon covered the streets. The city-is, absolutely and completely mined, and all that is left is a. shapeless quagmire, jammed with ruins, under which lie scores of bodies of prominent foreigners, businessmen, clients and stenographers employed in steamship and other offices. The Bluff, where the foreigners lived, is absolutely cleared of its inhabitants and life. The majority of the houses crash© I completely, and the fearful calls of the human victims *in most jcases Wire unanswered. The flames were fanned by a fierce win<h and burst everywhere. Hundreds runs! have died of heart failure. Many Japanese servants died trying to rescue the foreign children in their care. The refugee saw one servant with her hair and clothing on. fire, but she remained trying to aid children till she dropped dead. —Sun Service-. WASHINGTON, Sept. 5. A dispatch to the Shipping Board from the Manila agent reported that all vessels in the Government fleet in the aarthquake zone are safe. » It is stated the floor of Yokohama larbour has been raised, trapping several ships inside the port. It is suggested that this might necessitate the ase of Kobe as the principal receiving sort for the relief supplies. / . SHANGHAI, Sept 5. American destroyers, with limited ood and medical supplies have arrived ►I|F ; Yokohama. They are waiting to nake soimdings in the harbour before tpproaching to unload. - , , SHANGHAI, Sept. 6. *A passenger train at a standstill at fc station, near Otami on Saturday was hrown into the sea, and three hundred >assenc;ers were^drowned. Thirty were laved by swimming ashore. A train was precipitated into a field etween Hiratsuka and Oiso, killing wenty-six passengers, including an American military attache and the secetary to the German Embassy. Refugees from Yokohama are pouring ato Kobe. Many are groaning painally from injuries. The majority are estitute of clothing. Out of ten thousand Chinese in Yokoama, five thousand were killed. Cliinaown went down in. an avalanche of ricks. Prince Matsuka, who was previously eported dead, is safe. Certain unffected elevated sections of Tokio are ow lighted with electricity after being l darkness for three nights. The American Shipping Board steamer Sty of Spokane, laden with six thousnd tons of flour, anchored at Kobe and eoeived instructions from the American Jovernment to bffel the flour to the offerers. She has proceeded to Yokoama. • . ■ . SHANGHAI, Sept. 6. Reports from Osaka, state that while le earthquake was still in progress on unday evening, the ceremony of intailing the new Cabinet was held in le presence of the Prince Regent outide the Akasaka Palace. Subsequentj the first Cabinet meeting was held utside the Premier's official residence, nd it discussed relief measures. HONGKONG, Sept. 6. The earthquake relief committee has onoltided arrangements for intercepts ig-feargoes of provisions en route from merica. The committee, has purchasedre hundred tons.of rice, which is bejg despatched immediately. Phe shipinec companies have intimated their illingness to take cargoes there free, isuranco companies undertaking, to ivide th* risk free and Chinese firms driving their commission. SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5. A radiogram from the Japanese Govrnment has announced that the Taiyo" laru is safe, thus nullifying the earlier eports that she was endangered nine lundred miles off Yokohama.