RIVER OF FLAME.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 2742, 7 September 1923, Page 5

RIVER OF FLAME.

HORRORS OF JAPANESE DiSISTER. Hew Island irises From Sea. Relief Ships Arriving. [By Electric Cable—Copyright.] j[Auot. and N.Z. Cable Association.] (.Received Thursday, 1 p.m.) KOBE, September 5. The destruction of Yokosuka is complete. The earthquake smashed the subtcrruncan oil tanks on the hillside above the Naval station, half a million tons of oil sweeping through the demolished town, catching lire and becoming a river of Maine, from which there was no escape. The burning oil spread over the harbour, setting tiro to some vessels. The scene was terrifying. At the Naval base for hours there were continuous explosions of ammunition, punctuated with mighty blasts as the magazines caught and blew up. The towns of Odawara and Kodzu are reported to be completely destroyed. Kamakura was wiped out by a tidal wave twelve feet high following the earthquake. At the Catholic orphanage at Yokohama, 160 children and twelve sisters were crushed to death. There were ghastly sights in the streets, where hundreds of dead lie in grotesque heaps, looking as if they had been gassed. Amongst those reported dead are Mr Morrison McDouglass, of the Hongkong and Shanghai Chartered Bank, and M. Paul Desgarden, the French Consul-General at Yokohama. ,i ir ■ PEOPLE DAZED BY SHOCK. MAD SHRIEKS FROM BURNING ' HOUSES. (Received Thursday, 11.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, September 6. The "New York World" has received a cablegram from the foreign editor of the "Osaka Mainichi," who recounts a foreign refugee's account of the disaster at Yokohama. This refugee said that at the first smash, water spurted through innumerable cracks in the earth. The land in the lower end of the town sank and the streets were ten inches under water. After the first shock, frantic calls for help came from the wreckage, but aid could be given in only a few cases. Thousands of Japanese in the native part of the city seemed ,to die simply of heart failure. People knelt in prayer, heedless of the roaring inferno about them. They seemed dazed, and indifferent to their own fate and callous to the miseries of those about them. They stared numbly at the burning houses, whence came mad shrieks. The "New York Times" estimates that, according to advices from various places, probably 800 foreigners were killed in the Japanese disaster. The "Chicago Tribune's" Kobe correspondent says that ex-Premier Takahashi and other leaders of the Seiyuka Party, at first reported killed, are known definitely to have escaped. Members of the Japanese Imperial family killed Include Princes Shimazu and Kachlo. The latter was smothered in a railway tunnel at Yokohama when the exits were blocked. MORE TRAIN SMASHES REPORTED. 300 PASSENGERS DROWNED. (Received Thursday, 11 p.m.) SHANGHAI, September 6. Prince Matsukata, previously ' reported dead, is safe. Certain unaffected sections of Tokio are now lighted with electricity, after being in darkness for three nights. The American Shipping Board Dteamer City of Spokane, laden with six thousand tons of flour, anchored at Kobe, has received instructions from the American Government to offer the flour to sufferers and has proceeded to Yokohama. A passenger train at a standstill at ft station near Atami on Saturday was thrown into the sea, and three hundred passengers were drowned. Thirty were saved by swimming ashore. Another train was precipitated into A held between Hiratsuka and Oiso, killing twenty-six passengers, including an American military attache and the secretary to the German Embassy. Refugees from Yokohama are pouring into Kobe, many groaning painfully from injuries. The majority are destitute of clothing. Out of ten thou, sand Chinese in Yokohama, five thousand were killed. Chinatown went down in an avalanche of bricks. NO WORD FROM HIGHLANDS. WORST FEARED FOR FOREIGNERS. (Received Thursday, 9.45 p.m.) PEKIN, September 5. A new island has appeared forty miles south of Yokohama, where Poshima stood. The latter apparently sank, drowning the population. Officials fear extremely high casualties in the mountain districts, whence official word is still lacking. The Japanese officials estimate that over two "hundred foreigners perished in Yokohama on Saturday, while relatively few foreigners died in Tokio. DESTROYERS WITH FOOD. ARRIVAL AT YOKOHAMA. (Received Thursday, 11.20 p.m.) SHANGHAI, September 5. American destroyers, with limited food and medical supplies, have arrived oft Yokohama, They are waiting to make soundings in the harbour before approaching to unload.

YOKOHAMA A CHARNEL HOUSE. LOYALTY OF JAPANESE SERVANTS. (Received Friday, 2 a.m.) LONDON, September 5. A Toniioka wireless states that (Ax million homeless refugees are In Kobe.. The wireless says the refugees describe Yokohama as a <sharnel house. The canals on the waterfront are filled with dwul. The stencil of decomposing bodies and the violent heat are unbearable. The early report that two hundred foreigners lost their lives (here is < nflrmed. Those killed were mostly caught while 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 a bluff, without food or shelter, and their condition is pitiable. The French Ambassador walked from Tokio to Yokohama and boarded the French steamer Andre le Bon. One foreigner aboard the same ship graphically describes the disaster. With the sinking of the land, in the lower portion of Yokohama, water spurted through innumerable cracks in the earth. A foot of water soon covered the streets. The city is abso- ' lutely and completely ruined and all that is left Is a shapeless quagmire jammed with ruins, under which lie scores of bodies, including those of foreigners and business men, with their clients and stenographers employed in steamship and other offices. The bluff where the foreigners lived is absolutely cleared of habitations and life. The majority of the houses crashed completely. The fearful calls of the human victims were in most' cases unanswered. Flames, fanned by a fierce wind, burst everywhere and all escape was blocked. Hundreds must have died of heart failure. Many Japanese servants died in trying to rescue foreign children in their care. This man saw one servant with his hair and clothing afire, but he remained, trying to aid the children, till he dropped dead. CANADA'S HELP. SPECIAL RELIEF SERVICE. (Received Thursday, 11 p.m.) OTTAWA, September 5. The Government i 3 shipping foodstuffs to Japan In all the available space. The Empress of Russia, which sailed from Vancouver to-day, was filled with malted milk and flour, preliminary to a further consignment when Japan Indicates her preference in relief measures. The Government is also endeavouring to place some of the Canadian Government's merchant vessels on special relief service A radiogram from the Japaneso Government announces that the Taiyo Maru is safe, thus nullifying earlier reports that she was endangered 900 miles off Yokohama. ITALIAN AMBASSADOR PERISHED BUT COLONIES ESCAPED. (Received Thursday, 7 p.m.) ROME, September 5. That the Italian Ambassador perished at Tokio seems indicated in a report from the French Consul at Kobe, announcing that tho Italian Embassy in Tokio and the Consulate at Yokohama were destroyed, but the whole Italian colony in Japan is safe, including the diplomatic staff, with the exception of the Ambassador. DIVERTING CARGOES. ORDERS TO PROCCED TO JAPAN. (Received Thursday, 8.35 p.m.) HONGKONG, September 5. The earthquake relief committee has concluded arrangements for intercepting cargoes of provisions en route from America. The committee has purchased five hundred tons of rice, which is being despatched immediately. The shipping companies have intimated their willingness to take the cargoes there free of insurance, the companies undertaking and dividing the risk. Chinese firms are waiving their claims to commissions. A TRAGIC INITIATION. TASK FOR NEW CABINET. (Received Thursday, S.SS p.m.) SHANGHAI. September 5. Reports from Osaka state that while the earthquake was still in progress on Sunday evening, the ceremony of installing the new Cabinet was held In the presence of the Prince Regent outside the Akasaka palace. Subsequently, the first Cabinet meeting was held outside the Premier's official resi-1 dence. when relief measures were discussed. YOKOHAMA HARBOUR. POSSIBLY USELESS FOR SHIPPING (Received Wednesday, 9.45 p.m.) WASHINGTON, September 5. In a despatch to the Shipping Board from its Manila agent, it is reported that all the vessels in the Government fleet in the earthquake zone are safe. It Is stated that the floor of Yokohama harbour has been raised, trapping several ships inside the port. It is suggested that this might necessitate the use of Kobe as the principal receiving port for relief supplies.