QUETTA TRAGEDY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22262, 9 November 1935, Page 10

QUETTA TRAGEDY

HEROISM OF WOMEN SCENES AFTER EARTHQUAKE GLOWING TRIBUTE TO TROOPS [from our own correspondent] LONDON, Oct. 19 '"Thank God we had Karslake here!" That, said Field-Marshal Sir Claud Jacob, was the heartfelt exclamation of one who was in Quetta at the time of the earthquake. Sir Claud Jacob, who spent nearly 40 years in the Indian Army, was the chairman at a lecture delivered at the Boyal United Service Institution by Major-General H. Karslake, on the work of the Army after the Quetta earthquake. General Karslako is the commander of the Baluchistan district (Quetta), and in his audience weffe officers who had done heroic relief work. They included Brigadier C. N. F. Broad, whose Brigade was engaged in night operations when the catastrophe occurred. Thousands Killed The genoral spoke highly of the rescue work by British troops quartered in Quetta and of Indian units, especially the Sikhs and Hazara Pioneers. The earthquake took place about 3 a.m. and within a few seconds thousands of men, women and children had been killed or seriously injured. All the women in the city did exceptional work. Lord Kitchener once said that it was wrong for officers to marry. The lecturer was thankful that there were married officers in Quetta, for he did not know what they would have done without the help of the wives of officers and other women who survived the disaster.

About. 7000 troops were actively at work immediately the disaster happened, and before long approximately 12,000 were \ searching the debris for the injured and the bodies of the dead. Be could not praise too highly the efforts of both the British and Indian soldiers. Burial Problem The disposal of the dead was a great problem. They could not dig a hole bury the bodies irrespective of whether they were Hindoos or Mohammedans. The religion of one caste called for burial and the other for cremation. About 14 tons of wood were required to burn 4000 bodies. The refugees wpre placed in a camp on the racecourse, where the problem of sanitation was considerable. The Sappers and the Sanitary Sections, however, got over that difficulty so successfully ihat the refugees, because of, the ordered cleanliness, "did not know Whether it was Sunday or Christmas Day." f The work in the hospitals continued at high pressure day and night, with such , good effect that all danger of an epidemio was avoided. "Thero is no army in the world," General Karslake concluded, ''that can touch the Army in India." ' -• '\