GREAT DISTRESS

Southland Times, Issue 20014, 30 October 1926, Page 7

GREAT DISTRESS

ARMENIAN EARTHQUAKE THOUSANDS REPORTED STARVING DEAD NUMBER THREE HUNDRED (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Rec. 8.15 pan.) London, October 29. Harrowing details of the damage and loss of life and distress caused by the earthquake in Armenia are arriving from Constantinople and from Leninakhan, the capital of Russian Armenia. It is stated that within a 15-mile zone around Leninakhan 12 villages were destroyed completely .and 23 others partly. The killed number 300 and the injured several thousand. Miss Olive Hill, of the Near East Relief Committee, says she saw one camp containing 11,000 homeless people. Six hundred houses in Leninakhan were wrecked. The most pathetic feature is the plight of the children who, weakened by privation, are falling ill and dying in large numbers. “I gathered together 1000,” she said, “and made an offer to the Government that we would succour all between the ages of two and 12 throughout the winter. The committee have established field hospitals where injured people are arriving hourly, many requiring amputations. There is a great scarcity of food, as cattle have been killed wholesale.”—A. and N.Z.