SHORT OF COAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 21 December 1938, Page 8

SHORT OF COAL

FRENCH TRAWLER AT ST. PAUL ISLAND SOS PICKED UP IU P A.-Bv Electric Telegraph— Copyright l (Received 21st December. 1.35 p.m.) PARIS, 20th December. An amateur short-wave radio operator in the United States picked up an SOS from the French trawler lie de Bourbon at the island of St. Paul, in the Indian Ocean, which was passed on to Admiral Lackey, commander of the American squadron visiting Ville Franche.

Admiral Lackey advised the French Government, which ordered Madagascar to make contact by radio with the trawler.

The trawler left Brittany last May carrying forty-eight members of an expedition to establish a lobster fishery.

From the French colony of St. Paul an SOS reported that coal had run out, the result of bad weather, and that the position was critical. The expedition is under Commander Horn de Boar. St. Paul has acquired ill-repute as the result of the failure of an expedition in 1929. which was wiped out by disease. WARSHIP SPEEDING TO RESCUE DISSENSION AMONG EXPEDITION MEMBERS (Received 21st December. 1.46 p.m.) PARIS, 20th December. A French warship is speeding to the rescue. The colony of St. Paul is suffering from scurvy.

Dissension among members of the expedition is serious and each of five married couples, among whom there are two babies, is living in separate quarters. Members of the expedition intended to spend three years on St. Paul.