JAPAN HORROR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 806, 8 September 1923, Page 5

JAPAN HORROR.

RECONSTRUCTION WORK.

RELIEF VESSELS ARRIVING.,.

RAILWAYS BEING RESTORED.

By Electrio Telegraph.—Copyright Received September 8, 8.40 a.m. •" NEW YORK, Sept. 7. The United Press Asosciation's Tokio correspondent' says that several more relief vessels have, entered port. Fresh troops have arrived, chiefly engineers, who have begun to restore the railways in order that food and clothing, which are accumulating at Kobe and Osaka, might speedily •be moved to the capital. Meanwhile Osaka has become the new centre of business and communication and the Government is considering removing the Foreign Office thither.

Kobe has become the silk export centre, whither are slowly gravitating the main offices of all the industrial and commercial houses which were formerly located in Tokio and Yokohama.—A. and N.Z. cable.

ESTIMATE OF THE DEAD.

PROBABLY HALF A MILLION.

NEW YORK, Sept. 6. The Now York Times's Iwalu correspondent says to-day's advices state that in the devastated area in Japan the dead number half a million. This is considered probably a more correct figure than the earlier estimate.—A. and N.Z. cable.

RAIN FALLS IN TOKIO.

FIRES FINALLY DIE DOWN

NEW YORK, Sept. 6. The United Press Association's Tokio correspondent states that merciful rain has descended upon the city, enveloping the wreckage in clouds of steam and causing the fires finally to die down, thus permitting rescue work to proceed in more orderly fashion. The first connected story of the disaster has become available. Immediately following the first shake, fires started in fifteen places simultaneously and thousands of alarmed natives rushed towards the river crowding on to the bridge, which collapsed under their weight, causing many to drown. As Saturday and. Sunday passed the fires continued and the smell of burned human flesh permeated the air.—A. and N.Z. cable,

ORDER BEING RESTORED.

PREVENTING OF LAWLESSNESS

NEW YORK, Sept. 8. The New York Times's Osaka correspondent says that order in Tokio and Yokohama is gradually being restored, but shelter, provisions, clothing and carts and lorries are extremely scarce. The troops are concentrated in and around the cities and precautions are being taken against outbreaks of lawlessness. Half a mißion refugees are encamped about the Imperial Palace in Tokio. The refugees wait for many hours in a lino ' two miles long to get one pieqe of ricoball. Parents wander about the streets calling the names of their lost children. Others are carrying placards with tho names written on them. Troops are constructing shacks of which the Government has decided to build 12,000. Profiteering is severely punished when discovered, but enormously high prices are being paid for food. There is a great shortage of petrol, and motor traffic has almost ceased. Fears of financial collapse in Japan were at first entertained, but they have not been borne out.—A. and N.Z. cable:

WANDERING THRONGS STILLED.

TOKIO, Sept. 7. A most dramatic installation of the new Japanese Premier took place on the lawn in front of the Alasaka palace while the fire was raging and the earth trembling with recurrent shocks. The party dared not enter the palace owing to the danger of its collapse, but in the presence of the Prince Regent, Premier Yamamoto and the members of the new Cabinet took their oaths and turned to the great tasks before them.

To-day some semblance of order prevailed! Slender, hollow-cheeked youths walk the streets carrying big Japanese swords, aiding the police in relief work and assisting in the search for and identification' of bodies. Nevertheless, the survivors cannot believe that they are safe, many % fearing to lie down lest in their sleep ihey should be- overtaken by a new desvthdealing earthquake. Only complete exhaustion has stilled the wandering throngs which otherwise would have continued an endless pilgrimage, seeking to escape Nature's calamitous power.—A. and N.Z. cable. CARING FO~R~THE INJURED. OSAKA, Sept. 6. National attention is focussed. on the meetings of the emergency Cabinet, which are being held twice ditily. Yesterday it was decided to care for 15,000 wounded in the army barracks of the nearest city, Chiba. Tho prefecture is erecting tent barracks' for the troops, which are eating bi.ar.nt rations, and supplying 50,000' homeless with army biscuits. The Governor of Nagano, whetnee comes 90 per cent, of the Japanese silk, has telegraphed to the Kobe Chamber of Commerce to establish immediately a silk inspection bui-eau. Kobe merchants have created a bureau to keep the foreign trade going, deciding to accept for storage cargoes en route and billed for Yokohama 1 . Directors of- Osaka and Kobe fire insurance companies, announce that lesponsibility for the damage will not be shouldered in justice to the other policy holders. They state that rhe premiums in Japanese companies are' not high like those in foreign companies, and it may be decidjd to repay tWai, Supplies are now reao'j'flg Tokio 1 ? in large quantities, The danger of starvation is over. The Chamber of Commerce has decided against a moratorium, advising the merchants and banks to reach a mutual undrestanding, for six months at least are required to replace the spindles and rebuild the factories. One-third of the twisted thmad factories have been; destroyed-.—A. auid N.Z. cable. AUSTRALIANS KILLED. SYDNEY, Sept. 7.. ■ • As a result of the earthquake soi/d in view of the shortage of future sup>plies, merchants and retailers are advancing the prices of Japanese goods. Shipping companies in Australia are advised not to accept cargo for Tokio or Yokohama as there are no discharging facilities. Cargo will still be received, but all will be discharged at Kobe. A number of Australians are. swrK posed to have perished in the disaster.,' but authentic news is lacking. The inter-State tennis player, Russell Keays. of Geelong, is reported to have been killed, along with Mr Hawkei3 the father of the Davis Cup player,-*--Press Association.

'NAVY WAY BE REDUCED. PACIFIC RIVALRY ELIMINATED. By Electrio Telegraph.—Copyright. LONDON, Sept. 7. The Morning. Post says: "It is believed that Japan, owing to, the necessity of devoting her resources to her economio recovery, will probably find it desirable to keep even below the naval strength 'fixed at Washington. If this proves well-founded, it opens an entirely new vista in conneotion with Anglo-American relations concerning naval armaments. With the temporary enfeeblement of Japan, all question of American and Japanese rivalry in the Paoifio practically passes out'of the range of practical politics." It is pointed out that Japan now, owing to her losses, will have no anxiety regarding the emigration of her surplus population to the United States or elsewhere.—A. and N.Z. cable.

SALVATION ARMY'S HELP.

GENERAL BOOTH'S APPEAL

(Par Press Association.» WELLINGTON, Sept. 7. In the face of the unparalleled calamity which has overtaken Japan, and incidentally the work of the Salvation Army, the New Zealand headquarters of that organisation has received an appeal from General Bramwell Booth for financial help towards reconstructing the results or the patient toil of the past 30 years, all of which vanished in a single day. The General says: "The Army, in common with other religious associations, has suffered a great blow. Our headquarters, and, I fear, our hospital with other institutions and many officers' houses and soldiers' homes have gone. .iey have been thrown down into ruin by earthquake of reduced to ashes by fire. Most serious and lamentable of all, we have lost some noble, devoted men and women both Western and Japanese. In the presence of this dreadful emergency, we must turn with more determination and faith than ever to God and put our hand to the plough. We shall find men and women. The Army has always been able to raise up messengers of the Cross who feared no dangers. We shall also need money. The immediate claim is for the relief of the distressed and suffering people. For this purpose it seems to me that we should immediately and wisely distribute one million pounds for the restoration of destroyed buildings and for temporary erections needed for carrying on the work in the present awful conditions. For the care of orphan children, who are always an important consideration in dealing with such calamities, another million is needed. These may appear large figures. The nations are disturbed by many conflicting cares and sorrows, yet I do not hesitate in the presence of this dreadful calamity to presont my claim to the world. The future of Japan is not a matter which concerns merely Eastern nations, nor a matter of interest merely to the Western peoples. It is a matter which concerns the whole world. _ No opportunity ever occurred for bringing hoihe to her people the influence of Christian charity such as this one. That opportunity concerns us, every one. Let us use it." NEW ZEALAND TO ASSIST. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 7. Cabinet to-day decided to contribute towards the British Government's measures for affording relief to the Japanese earthquake sufferers.

MISSING PALMERSTONIAN.

REPORTED ALIVE.

Despite the fact that Mr and Mrs D. Thomas, of Margaret street, have not yet received any communication direct from their son, Mr 11. N. Thomas, drafting engineer of the Rising Sun Petroleum Company, Yokohama, nopes that he is alive are raised by a telegram received this morning; from Mr Harold Thomas, a brother residing in Wellington. . The latter got into touch with Sir Francis Bell, and the rosult of the enquiries made as to Mr H. N. Thomas's safetywas the following advice received this morning: "No communication with Harry Thomas whatever, but various reports are that he has been seen, alive." It is feared by the relatives that Mr Thomas may have been.injured and unable to communicate with his parents,

PREVIOUS DISASTER.

THE GREAT "SHAKE". OF 1691,

The appalling accounts of death and destruction to human life and property which have been received in the cable messages from Japan in chronicling the facts associated with the most devastating _ earthquake in its history convey but a faint impression to those who have not experienced the terrifying ordeal through which hundreds of thousands, of. the Japanese race have recently passed. The task of recording an adequate impression of the scenes of wreckage and devastation and the pitiful plight of the stricken inhabitants is beyond the ken of the most descriptive writer,, and in the absence of first-hand experience of such a catastrophe a mental cameo of actual events cart only be had by recourse to pictorial records of previous disasters in the Orient. A local resident lias kindly placed at the disposal of the "Standard" an interesting collection of photographs depicting the scenes that followed in the wake of the great earthquake of 1891, which caused heavy loss of life and destruction in the Mikado's kingdom. Whilo the violent seismographio disturbance of 189 i was of considerable magnitude, it is now of secondary importance to that which caused tht holocaust of death and which caused.the holocaust of death and destruction and shook Japan to its very foundations during last week-end, ahd if the reports published are authentic—and there is no reason to doubt that they are—the consequences of the upheaval must be left to a large extent to the imagination. The pictorial record of the earthquake of 1891 gives rise to considerable speculation and doubts'as to the wisdom of the Japan l e9e authorities in the adoption of a policy of building construction that naturally suggests itself as one not calculated to withstand the activities of a violent earth tremor. The pictorial records already referred to show a preponderance of brick buildings and dwellings which are depicted as a mass of ruini. In one photograph what was once an imposing factory built in brick is shown as a tumbled heap of masonry and rubble, the tall chimney-stack having toppled half-way, and that portion of it which was left standing iB shown leaning at a dangerous ongla ; In other photographs massive steel bridges across rivers are shown as a nias's of twisted metal, railway tracks are depicted in undulating and spiral contours, the rails in many caae3 being uprooted and twisted out of all shape. , . „ , Again, whole streets are depicted as a desolate waste, the wound being littered, with heaps of rubbish and wreckage to a dopth of Boveral feet, among which tho stricken inhabitants are shown making pitiful efforts to reclaim some semblance of order out of chaos. The scenes depicted are of an appalling character, and there can be no doubt that in the greater calamity that has swept Japan recently the damage must been suoh as to stagger the imagination. Somo little idea of the devastation following tho latest national tragedy in tho land of the Rising Sun can be obtained by a brief reflection on the fate of the toll buildings designated in American parlance, "skyscrapers," that presumably abounded in Tokio and Yokohama. The effects of the collapse of such huge edifioes must beggar description, but doubtless their precipitation into tho streets was responsible in large measure for the heavy death roll. The records from which this article has boon written have nn introductory preface

which gives some valuable information relative to the susceptibility of Japan to seisraographical disturbance. It is stated that "Japan is a land of earthquakes and volcanoes ; every year its inhabitants are shaken by at least five hundred shocks and at intervals—several of which fall within living memory—some part or other of the Empire is visited by a terrible catastrophe. When nature thus asserts itself cities are rocked like ships upon the ocean and it is some time before equilibrium is restored. There is a mighty effort as if a mouhtain rahge had escaped the pressure that held it in its crumpled form, and the country is suddenly thrown into the most violent oscillation. Complete relief, however, is not obtained at'once and, for some months, minor yielding* announce themselves with subterranean tnundorings and smaller shakings on the surface. In these years one or two thousand shakings are added to the average five hundred. When we are not shaken by earthquakes certain sections of the country are threatened by volcanoes." The foregoing is a striking commentary on the perils and dangers to which the country is continually exposed.