FIRE FOLLOWS FLOODS

Taranaki Daily News, 15 August 1931, Page 9

FIRE FOLLOWS FLOODS

HAVOC IN HANKOW CITY

PLAGUE STILL SPREADING

LIME HELD UP BY BOYCOTT

THOUSANDS HOMELESS

By Telegraph.—Press Association.

Shanghai, Aug, 13.

Fire is sweeping sections of Hankow unchecked, the streets, flooded by the phenomenal rise in the Yangtze River, preventing the fire being combated. Plague is spreading and huge quantities of lime, required for medical purposes, are detained through the anti-Japanese boycott pickets at Shanghai, owing to its Japanese origin. •

Hundreds of thousands of homeless people are sheltering on the tops of the dykes and embankments, or perching on the treetops. They are clinging to their scattered possessions awaiting the subsidence of the floods, which is unlikely for weeks. The air mail from Shanghai arriving at Hankow nose-dived and broke a propeller when seeking a landing place. The crew and passengers were rescued.