JAPANESE DISASTER.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 September 1923, Page 2

JAPANESE DISASTER.

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION,

NEWS FROM JAPAN. VANCOUVER, Sept. 16

The steamer President Jefferson has reached Vancouver, the first vessel to arrive from Japan since the earthquake. Slie brought two hundred refugees in a pitiable condition. The captain states all the harbour fortifications in Tokio and Yokohama have been destroyed. The island at the mouth,of Yokohama harbour lias partially disappeared. Defence works have been dismantled. Many guns point skyward. It is learned that nobody survived in the destruction of the United Club at Yokohama, where hundreds of people wore dining when the place collapsed. Silk, valued at four hundred million yen, stored in warehouses, was destroyed. JAPAN’S FUTURE. TOKIO, Sept. 16. The Prince Regent lias assumed the direction of Tokio’s Reconstruction Commission, of which Premier Yamamoto is President. The latter has issued a manifesto, urging a general.reconstruction effort. He has thanked the foreign countries for sympathy and assistance for the distressed, and expressed the Government’s intention to penalise the profiteers. He declared Tokio must remain the capital. He discouraged extravagance, and advised strict economy as a means of vindicating the national character in the world’s eves.

The first shipment of raw silk will leave Yokohama shortly for the United States. This is deemed a good sign of the Japanese determination to carry on although no warehouses are standing to receive goods for shipment.

Osaka’s Chamber of Commerce reports that good prices have risen six per cent, but high rates are unlikely because the areas producing the essentials of daily life, Osaka and Kobe, are undamaged. Transportation is now the chief difficulty, owing to the vast damage done to the railway highways. All Tokio’s’ and Yokohama's theatres, cinemas and museums being destroyed, Osaka or Kobe is likely to become the centre of art, drama, and music. Heavy rains continue, causing suffering among the refugees, of whom thousands are still sheltered by shacks made of salvaged wood and iron.