COLD SPELL HOLDS EUROPE IN ITS GRIP

Chronicle (Levin), 11 January 1947, Page 5

COLD SPELL HOLDS EUROPE IN ITS GRIP

(Sneeial (.'orrespondent.)

LONDON, Jan. 9. Reports from many parts of Europe and lndia indicute that the cold spell which still has mucli of the Gontinent in its icy grip is the worst since tlie winter of 1940-41, when some of the severest conditions during the past. 50 vears were experienced. For the jiast nine days the temperalures over most of Germany have been from 10 to 20 degrees below freozing point. The eanals have more than a foot of iee and snow on them, and in inauy of the large cities, starved for fue.l and exposed by war damage, the conditions are described aa- desperate, Fourteen deaths have been reported in Italy. In. some paris of the peninsula the temperatuies have been the lowest recorded in living memory. iiome had its lirst fall of snow for many years, and in Trieste the therniometer fell to 10.5 degrees Fahr. Snow fell as far south as Taranto and even in Sicilv the t emperatures are lielow freezing point. Ni ilii.ii, Turin and all cities of tlie north are under a thiek blanket, wliile in Venice ihe canals are fio/.en and gondolas have been crushed in quickI'oriniiig iee. Many of tlie northern ])usses through the Apennines are partially bloeked bv snow. Temperatures below zero Fahrenheit have been recorded ip many paris of Austrin. in Yienna, where tlie factories have already been closed for a month owing to lack of fu.el, there is alniost a coniplete paral.vsis of all normai activily. ' Only oue newspaper was published in the capitaL on Wed.nesday, and in some hospitals' operations hail to be carried out bv the light of acetv lene lamps, because the electricity sup])ly had conipletely failed. Although snow has fallen in many parts of the. British Isles, France and tlie countries of the W'estern European seaboard, the cold spell has been moderated in this area by a deprossion moving in from the Atlantie. .Todav all traces of snow had disappeared from Southern England and conditions were rapidly improving in the north. Ln parts of Ireland and the Knglish Lakelands distriet, however, there is a seri ous threat oi' flood. In Paris, the international coal experts' conference, ealled by the World Federation of Trade Unions, recoiu- . mended. extrcme measures and even laboirf./..if necessarv, to inctrease tl/e' Ruhi. co.a-lymin.es ' production,--- The experts als'o cttljed for the natio.nalisg'tio n of the Ruhr min.es, witli tlie -management under thc direction of an intei national organisation of coal experts.