Cold Grips Europe

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 585, 11 February 1929, Page 1

Cold Grips Europe

Wolves and Wild Deer Forced To Go to the Cities for Food

HOMELESS FROZEN TO DEATH (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright> (Australian and N.Z. Press AssociationJ Received 12.48 p.m. LONDON, Sunday. PRACTICALLY the whole of Europe, from Moscow to Constantinople, is still suffering the most intense cold in half a century. England has thus far escaped the severity of the terrible conditions.

Wireless messages to Vienna from Constantinople say radio is the only remaining means of communication the distressed city has. Telephone and telegraph cables have been interrupted, trains are snowed up, and ships are prevented from leaving by a frightful tornado. The snow is nine feet deep in Constantinople and its suburbs. Troops are dispersing packs of wolves in the environs. Many of the homeless people have been frozen to death in the streets. There is a danger of famine. The flour supply is limited. Most of the shops and all the theatres are closed. The streets are empty. The Orient express, which left Vienna on January 30, is still buried in a snowdrift in East Thrace. It is understood that the passengers still have sufficient food and fuel.

The devastating cold is widespread through Europe. Ice has compelled the closing of the Kiel Canal. 1 All the shipping on the Rhine has l been suspended for a fortnight. Wild deer are venturing into the towns in search of food. Places ’ nearly 1,000 miles south of London have lower temperatures than Eng- ■ land. Marseilles is five degrees bei low freezing point. i Areas between the Baltic and the Black Sea have between 50 and 70 i degrees of frost. Reports from Moscow are described s as appalling. The mercury has ceased to register since the temperas ture in certain districts has fallen to S 5S degrees below zero. The schools are closed. Buses are prevented from t running, because of the impossibility 1 of starting the engines, i The milk is freezing and bursting l the cans, and the food supply is disorganised.