EXTRAORDINARY SCENES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 165, 12 June 1928, Page 8

EXTRAORDINARY SCENES.

“CATACLYSM AT WEYMOUTH.” A FORECAST THAT FAILED.

LONDON, May 31. Weymouth, in the south of England, known to most of the overseas soldiers, was the scene to-day of a most extraordinary exhibition of credulity and unbelievable apprehension that a cataclysm was about to overwhelm the favoured holiday resort. _ The mischief started with the publication of advertisements foretelling the dire calamity about to take place and the exact moment of its occurrence. Twenty thousand bewildered people crowded the sea front to wait a tidal wave, which, however, failed to evenThe incident was the sequel to the British-Israel World Federation s whole-page newspaper advertisement predicting the beginning of a series ot world calamities “as foretold by the Pyramids.” The tidal wave was timed to occur at, exactly 3.53 p.m. . Many holidaymakers cancelled their hotel bookings, but swarms ot quasicurious folk early descended on the town by rail and motor car, packing the hotels and boarding houses and densely crowding the streets and the promenade, which is a mile long, iheie was a big run on chemists' by women for tonics and on drapers for bathing costumes. Some believed that nothing was likely to happen ; but all appeared to wonder what might. “CLOSED FOR CATACLYSM.”

Special correspondents from the newspapers chronicled the whirl ot events hourly. , Intense interest was manifested as the fateful hour approached, not altogether unmixed with humour. One shopkeeper’s window contained a notice: “Closed for tli6 cataclysm. Will reopen at 4.30 p.m. Tennis parties arranged tidal wave teas to coincide with the washout, Hie town’s tide expert took a tidal gauge periodically and found everything normal, but nobody wanted to believe him. Everybody had" come to see tue town engulfed, including' 100 Dutch touiists aboard a liner anchored in the ba\. By 3.50 p.m. everybody had crowded to the seafront looking seawards. A tense silence replaced the _ hubbub of expectancy when the crucial .moment passed without incident. Tho timorous sighed with relief, while others burst out laughing or expressed their disgust in lurid language at finding the town still on the map. PILOT KILLED. An aeroplane doing stunt trips with passengers at the time, crashed into the sea. The pilot was' killed and a passenger seriously injured STORM IN JERUSALEM. CAUSES A PANIC. JERUSALEM, May 31. Impressed by the prophecy of an earthquake ushering in the end of the world, crowds waited all night out of doors. A sudden storm with thunder, lightning and rain at midnight, which was most unseasonable, caused a panic, many thinking it was the beginning of the end.