INVESTORS AT SEA

Hokitika Guardian, 18 December 1929, Page 7

INVESTORS AT SEA

PANIC ON LINER WIRELESS OPERATOR MOBBED. PARTS, October 30. Strange scenes resulting from tbe panic in Wall Street were witnessed when a trans-Atlantic liner arrived at Havre. The majority of the five hundred passengers were Americans, and the liner had hardly touched the quay when most of them left their hand luggage and rushed ashore as though they had just escaped from a shipwreck. They had suffered shipwreck of fortune these, passengers, who included several millionaires. Those who were not affected by the panic relate what happened on board when the wireless messages were received telling of the slump on the New York Stock Exchange—the selling of millions of shares, the loss of huge sums in one day, and the alarming announcement that the Stock Exchange would close its doors. The passengers beseiged the wireless cabin. They seemed to be mad with fear that their fortunes would be lost. In their baste to give orders and counter-orders, 11 1 ey jostled one another, and meanwhile the wireless operator was giving out news more serious than ever. Bv and by sinister rumours were circulated to tile effect that such and such a millionaire on board bad been absolutely ruined. Men looked at the sea. mournfully, women wept. Hie anxiety lasted three days. When the liner reached Havre, tbe operator had still numerous orders tb telegraph. Many of the passengers were so much upset when they landed that they wandered aimlessly about, a prey to acute distress, and hardly knew how they were able to reach Paris.