THE TITANIC DISASTER.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 97, 24 April 1912, Page 5

THE TITANIC DISASTER.

VIGOROUS BRITISH ACTION. ■'By Electric Telegraph.—Copying) t.) (United Press Association.) (Received 24, 8.20 a.in. London, April 23. Mr Crooks moved the adjournment of the House of Commons to call attention to the necessity for the Board of Trade preventing the officers, crew, and passengers of the Titanic dispersing before they had given evidence before the British inquiry. SUBS! DISING WITNESSES. Mr Buxton, replying, promised to subpoena them all. It would he necessary to subsidise the poorer witnesses. Lord Mersey had been appointed Wreck Commissioner, and assisted by assessors, lie would commence an investigation directly. Toe Government was also convening a meeting of British companies to (onsider precautions pending revision of the law. Mr Crooks withdrew his motion. WATER-TIGHT COMPARTMENTS. (Received 24, 8.20 a.m. New York, April 23. Mr Franklin, Vice-president of the International Mercantile Marine Company, gave evidence that the collision probably opened five or six watertight compartments. AN APPEAL DISREGARDED. Boxhall, the Titanic’s fourth officer, gave evidence that the berg was of a dark grey colour, and was thirty feet high. After the collision he bred Morse lights to attract a ship which was five miles away. The ship answered, though the Titanic signalled: “Come at once: we are sinking.” It is not known what was the name of the ship. (Received 24, 8.20 a.m. . London, April. 23. The Daily News New York correspondent states that the Senate intends inquiring whether the Titanic’s officers disregarded repeated warnings about icebergs; whether it was unavoidable that a hundred women perished; why the White Star Line was ignorant of the disaster until the evening, though the Baltic and Olympic know the details at noon; why the Marconi official wirelessed to the operators on the Carpathia on Thursday : “Say nothing; hole! your story for dollars in four figures.” The correspondent adds that there was some talk of a club boycott of the men who left the ship while women wore aboard, hut it is difficult to criticise men when boat after boat was lowered partly tilled. Nine out of ten of the passengers for an hour and a half believed the vessel unsinkahle, and deliberately refused to enter the earlier boats. PASSENGERS’ MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. Steward Nichols states that half the men went hack to bed three-quarters of an hour after the collision. He saw a passenger punching the hall in the gymnasium. Women had to he coaxed to enter the boats. “ BRING BACK THOSE BOAT'S.” Peter Daly, a first saloon passenger, states that the captain ran to the railing, calling: “Bring those boats hack! They are only half filled!” KIDNAPPED CHILDREN. The Hoffmann children are sons of a Nice tailor. The mother asserts that the father kidnapped the children a month, ago and disappeared. AMUSING IGNORANCE. (Received 24, 8.20 a.m.) London, April 23. The Times calls attention to the ignorance of Senator Smith, chairman of the inquiry, in asking Liglitoller whether the watertight compartments were intended as a refuge for passengers.