IN THE OPEN.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20632, 5 June 1935, Page 9

IN THE OPEN.

Minimising Danger in Quake Area at Quetta. SURVIVORS CARED FOR. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received June 5, 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, June 4 An India Office communication states that although there may be some chance of further shocks at Quetta this need not cause undue alarm as all precautions are being taken to minimise the danger to survivors. They are being accommodated in the open. All British survivors are devoting themselves completely to relief work and their efforts are reinforced by a constant stream of assistance from outside. The greater part of the Quetta cantonment was either intact or only slightly damaged. This applies to the staff college, both military hospitals and the barracks of the British and Indian troops and their families. The injured under treatment in military hospitals are: British 79 men, 73 women and three children; Indians, Evacuating Refugees. The evacuation of refugees from Quetta continues and owing to further severe shocks there are heavy demands on the railway for transport. Eight thousand injured were treated at the various hospitals. There were 10,000 casualties in the Mastung district, including 2000 dead in the town. 41 The Times ” special correspondent, visiting Quetta, says that Quetta is a place of utter desolation. Authoritative circles fear that the death roll in the district will aggregate 46,000. From Mstung to Kalat, a distance of 80 miles, every village has been demolished. Most of the villages in the Kalat State have been obliterated. Clearing the Debris.

The death roll at Quetta would have been far greater but for the untiring efforts of rescuers, chiefly British troops, who, within two hours of the city’s crashing to ruin, dug out 105. One hundred were alive.

Sappers, wearing gas resisting masks owing to the stench of the corpses, are co-operating with tanks in clearing the ruins, disclosing grim sights of human bodies crushed amid furniture. 3250.