IN GRIP OF ICE AND SNOW

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 240, 30 December 1927, Page 9

IN GRIP OF ICE AND SNOW

GREAT BRITAIN AND EUROPE BUZZARD SWEEPS NORTHERN JAPAN DRITAIN is not the only country assailed by blizzards and flood and cold. There are reports of a blizzard in Japan; of the bitter cold having driven wolves into Hungarian cities and villages; and of a man at Basle, frozen to a lamp-post, dying in agony. The conditions are unprecedented.

(British Official Wireless .) Reed. 11.20 a.m. RUGBY, Thurs. The Upper Medway River invaded Maidstone yesterday, and tramway and electric lighting services were suspended owing to the generating station being flooded. The position is now reported to be improving. The gale in the English Channel is still blowing. The wind is almost of hurricane force, and for the fourth day in succession steamer services from Dover were cancelled to-day. On the railways conditions ha.ve rapidly improved, and the services on most lines are now normal. The latest weather forecast affords the hope that milder conditions will relieve the plight of the inhabitants of the towns and villages which are still snowbound, and in many of which real hardship is being endured, owing to the shortage of fuel and food supplies. Reports from all quarters tell of men struggling for miles on foot or horseback across fields deep in snow, to take food supplies to remote districts, and of gallant efforts made by doctors to reach patients in isolated places. The work of clearing the roads of snowdrifts has been rendered even more difficult by the severe frost, which has turned the drifts into masses of ice. LONDON’S FUEL Even London has been threatened with a shortage of fuel and food supplies. Coal merchants have been getting supplies of coal satisfactorily by train, but have been unable to deliver it to householders, owing to the icebound. streets. In Covent Garden, supplies of vegetables are short, as these come only by road. Milk supplies have been considerably affected, but are now being delivered nearly normally. A large number of French people, who were held up in England through the accident to the Channel steamer Engadine, made a fresh start for Paris to-day, by the Newhaven-Dieppe route. Others waited at Folkestone for the Maid of Orleans, which left Boulogne for Folkestone at midday with 836 passengers aboard, and was afterwards leaving for Boulogne again. It was hoped this morning that the French boat would be available for passengers wishing to cross from Dover to Calais, but at midday it was announced that there would be no Dover-Calais sailing. To-day New-haven-Dieppe and Southampton-Le Havre services are normal. CUNARDER HELD UP

When the Cunard liner Aquitania arrived at Cherbourg last evening, en route for New York, her commander, Sir James Charles, decided that the high wind and the heavy seas made it too hazardous to go into the harbour. The liner had to cruise round outside the harbour all night. She managed to enter at 9 o’clock this morning, after being held up over 12 hours. —A. and N.Z.

are isolated. The homeless people are being accommodated at the Deanery and the barracks. The Mayor is raising a relief fund. Road traffic in Cornwall and Devon, where snow is very rare, is completely disorganised, and coastwise steamers are supplying food. The London boroughs are employing thousands of the unemployed to clear the streets, at a cost of £5,000 a day. Numerous hamlets, especially in the Mendips and other hill districts, have been cut off since Christmas Day, and have received no letters or papers and very little food. DOCTORS HELD UP The telephone lines are disorganised, and so communication is practically impossible. Doctors on Salisbury Plain are unable to reach the sick, and children are being born without medical help. The snowdrifts on Salisbury Plain are in many cases 20ft deep. The doctors say they attempted to force their motors through the drifts, but failed. Army tanks assisted in forcing passages through the snow-blocked roads at Tidworth and elsewhere on Salisbury Plain. Two infantry battalions are assisting to clear the Andover Road. Three “Dragon” tanks, by crushing the drifts, enabled an omnibus service to reach Tidworth Camp. The tanks also brought mails, milk and provisions, which were running low in the camps. One tank rescued a number of women passengers who were stranded on the railway line near Bulford. The steamer Engadine, after landing 650 passengers at Folkestone, was found to be unfit to return to Boulogne and will be out of commission for a week. The huge waves flooded the hatches and burst the bulkhead of the ladies’ saloon, causing consternation among the women and children as the water poured into the crowded saloon. Disembarkation was an exceedingly difficult task. Some of the women were so ill that they had to be carried ashore.—A. and N.Z.-Sun.

WOLVES IN VILLAGES DRIVEN TBSRE tY COLD Reed. 9.5 a.m. BUDAPEST, I’hurs. The severity of the winter has driven packs of wolves into the Hungarian villages. Some have penetrated to the capital, and one was shot in the heart of the city.—A. and N.Z. BLIZZARD IN JAPAN Reed. 9.5 a.m. TOKYO, Thurs. Severe blizzards are sweeping Northern Japan. Shipping is suffering badly. Five hundred houses were wrecked in the Akita prefecture.—A. and N.Z.