MORE DISCLOSURES

Hokitika Guardian, 24 May 1932, Page 5

MORE DISCLOSURES

ILL-FATED VESSEL

WAS GOLD CARGO THE OBJECT.

iUnited Press Association.—By Electric i'elegra ph. —Copy rlgh t-; PARIS, May 23. Captain Vicq, > n u supplementary icpoct,' discloses tlutt an electric a.ann communicating with, the bullion room of the Georges .'Philipp'aif ! was mysteriously sounded for the first t.m© eight days before the disaster, and a second time half an hour before the first. The ship’s officers immediately inspected the bullion. On both occasions, they found no signs of tampering with it.

Captain Vicq adds that some of the fire-fighting apparatus was curiously proved to he empty when the fire started.

Captain Vicq inspected all of the first and second class cabins that were accessible before leaving the ship. He found nobody. He spent the whole morning in superintend.lig the leScue of th© survivors.

Public opinion throughout France is gravely disturbed by tile Geol'ges Pliilippar tragedy, ahil thtere are insistent demands for a bloat searching inquiry into the cause of the fire ahd the handling o-f tile situation after the fire was discovered, This will undoubtedly take place when Captain Vicq and hiy officers return.

Captain Vicq’s disclosure that flames broke out simultaneously in several widely different points is regarded as mysterious, especially as the naval engineers who built be ship deny the possibility of simultaneous short cir-, emits, or even any short circuits, owing to the careful insulation of t’ <' •

Th© Messagerios Maritime Cov’s offices at Paris are still haunted

friends and relatives anxious about the forty-eight who are missing. At Djibouoi a woman passenger has succumbed to her injuries.