JAPANESE DISASTER.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 September 1923, Page 3

JAPANESE DISASTER.

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. STARVATION DANGER OVER. OSAKA, Sept, 5. National attention is focussed on tlm meetings of the Emergency Cahi- ' net, which tire being held twice daily. Aesterday it was decided to care for' 15,000 who lip wounded in the Army Barracks. In the nearest city, C’hiba, the Prefecture is erecting tent barracks for the troops, which are eating biscuit rations, and also supplying 50,000 homeless with army biscuits. The (iovernor of Nagano, whence conics !X) per cent of the country’s silk, has telegraphed to the Kobo C’hamiher of Commerce to establish imqpi mediately a silk inspection bureau. The Kobe merchants have created a bureau to keep the foreign silk trade going, deciding to accept storage cargoes onroute, billed for Yokohama. The directors of the Osaka and Kobe Fifo Insurance Companies announce that the Responsibility for damages will not ho shouldered. In justice to . other policy holders, they state the premiums of the Japanese Companies, however, are not high, like those of foreign companies, and it may he decided to repay them. Supplies are now reaching 'Tokio in large quantities. The danger of starvation is over. The Chamber of Commerce has deluded against a moratorium, advising 'the merchants and bau'ks'to reach a mutual understanding. The cotton operators almost admit that a recovery of that industry is impossible, for six months at least will be required to replace the spindles and rebuild; faetdrics. One thi,r<l of the twistcu thread factories are destroyed.

DEVASTATED TOKIO

NEW YORK, September (5. The New York “Times” Osaka corres

pondent says

—Older in Tokio and

Yokohama, is gradually being restored, ■* but shelter, provisions, clothing, carts and lorries are extremely scarce. Troops are concentrated in and around tne cities, and precautions are being taken against outbreaks of lawlessness. Half a million refugees ar 0 encamped about the Imperial palace in Tokio. The refugees wait many hours in a line two miles long to get one piece of licehall. Parents wander about the streets calling the names of lost children. Others are carrying placards with their names written on them. The troops are constructing '‘shacks” <:f which the (lovernment has decided to huild 12,000. Profiteering is severely punished wlien discovered, but enormously high prices arc being paid for food. There is a great shortage of petrol, and motor traffic has almost ceased. Fears of the financial collapse in Japan were at first entertained, but are not borne out,

TOKIO’,S SAD STORY. TOKIO, September 7. The first connected story of the disaster from Tokio City has just beeonio available. Immediately following on the first earthquake on Saturday, fires started in fifteen places simultaneously, and thousands of alarmed natives trashed towards the river, crowding on to a bridge, which collapsed under their weight, causing many to drown.

As Saturday and Sunday passed, the fires continued, and tne smell of burned human flesh permeated the air. N.Z. RELIEF. WELLINGTON, Sept. 7. Cabinet to-day decided to contribute towards the British Government's measures for affording relief to the .Japanese earthquake sufferers. SALVATION ARMY REQUEST. WELLINGTON, September 7. In the face of the unparalleled calamity which has overtaken Japan, and incidentally the work of the Salvation Army, the New Zealand Headquarters of that organisation has received an appeal from General Bramwell Bootli for financial help towards reconstructing the results of the patient toil of the past HO years, all of which vanished in a single day. General Booth says:—“Tho Army, in common with other religious associations, has suffered a great blow. Our headquarters and I fear tho hospital, with other institutions, many officers’ houses and soldiers' homes, have gone. They _ have been thrown down into ruin by the earthquake, or reduced to ashes by tho fire. Most serious and lamentable of all, we have lost some noble, devoted men and women, both western and Japanese. In the presence of this dreadful emergency, we must turn with more determination and faith than ever to Geil, and put our hand to the plough. We shall find men and women such as the Army has always been able to raise up, messengers of the Cross, who fear no dangers. "We shall also need money. The immediate claim is for relief of the distressed, suffering people. For this purpose, it seems to me we should immediately and wisely distribute one million pounds for the restoration of our destroyed buildinganil for our temporary erections needed for carrying on our work in the* present awful conditions. For the car? of orphan children, who are always im important consideration in dealing with such calamities, another million is needed. Those may appear large figures. Tho nations are disturbed by m any conflicting cares and sorrows, vet I do not hesitate, in the presente of this dreadful calamity, to present my claim to the world. The futuio of" Japan is not a matter which eoncorns merely the Eastern Nations, noi a matter that interests merely western people. It is a matter which concerns tile whole world. No opportunity over •occurred for bringing home to her people the influence of Christian charity such as this one. That opportunity concerns us every one. I*?t ns use it.”

JAPAN'S NAVAL STRENGTH. LONDON, September 7. The “Morning Post” says:—lt is believed that Japan, owing to the necessity of devoting her resources to her economic recovery will probably find it desirable to keep even below ttio naval strength fixed at A\ n.shington.' If this proves well-founded, it opens an entirely new vista in connection with Anglo-American relations concerning naval armaments, with the temporary enfeebloment of Japan, all question 'of Amerioan-Japaneso rivalry in the Pacific practically passes out oi the range of practical politics. It is pointed out that Japan now, owing to her losses, will have no anxiety regarding the emigration lof her surplus' population to the Lnited States or elsewhere.”

FEAR OF NEW QUAKES. TOKIO, Sept. 7. To-day a semblance of order prevails here. Slender, hollow-cheeked youths walk the streets carrying big Japanese swords, aiding the police in the relief work, and assisting in the search lor identification of bodies. Nevertheless the survivors cannot believe that they are safe, many fearing to lie down lest in their sleep they should he overtaken hv a new deathdealing quake. Only complete exhaus tion has stilled the wandering throngs, which, otherwise, continue to escape nature's calamitous power.

EFFECT UN A I ST HA 1,1 A. SYDNEY. Sept. 7. As a result of the eartnquake. and in view of the shortage of further supplies, the merchants and retailers here are advancing the prices of Japanese goods. The shipping companies in Australia are advised not to accept cargo tor Tokio or Yokohama, as there are lie discharging facilities. Cargo will stil he received, but all will he discharged at Kobe. A number of Australians are sup posed to have perished in the disaster, hilt authentic news is lacking.

All iiiter-Ktnte tennis player, Russell Keays ,of Geelong, is reported to have been killed, along with Hawkos.

BELIEF VESSELS ARRIVE. (Received this day at 8.50 a.m.) NEW YORK, Sept. 7. The United Press Tokio correspondent says several more relief vessels have entered the port. Fresh troops have arrived, chiefly engineers, who have began to restore the railways, in order that food and clothing, which are accumulating at Kobe and Osaka might speedily he moved to the capital. Meanwhile Osaka has become a new centre of business and communication, and Government is considering the removing of the Foreign Office thither. Kobe has become the silk export centre, whither is slowly gravitating the main offices of all industrial and eoniinei'cial house.-, which were formerly located in Tokio and Yokohama.