PHILLIPAR TRAGEDY DISTURBS FRANCE

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6865, 23 May 1932, Page 7

PHILLIPAR TRAGEDY DISTURBS FRANCE

Searching Inquiry Demanded MYSTERIOUS SIMULTANEOUS FIRES United Press Association —By Electria Telegraph—Copyright. Received Sunday, 9.50 p.m. ‘ ' LONDON, May 22. Public opinion throughout France is gravely disturbed by the Phillipar 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 m several widely different points is regarded as mysterious, especially as the naval engineers who built the ship deny the possibility of simultaneous short circuits or even any short circuits owing to tho careful insulation of the wires. The Mcssugcrios offices at Paris are still haunted by friends and relatives anxious about tho 48 missing. £30,000 in Gold Ingots Aboard PARIS, May 20. The Phillipar, which drifted 160 miles before foundering, had aboard gold ingots worth £30,000 from Colombo. She was gutted fore and aft, and mo wreckage was left afloat. The fierce heat prevented the salvage tug Preserver from taking hold. Thirty-six are now computed .. as missing, but survivors at Djibouti say that a lifeboat capsized near Cape Guardafui and the calm sea may have enabled some of the occupants to reach the shore. Death of Woman Passenger DJIBOUTI, May 20. A woman passenger has succumbed to her injuries.