HUN INCENDIARISM IN AMERICA.

Taihape Daily Times, 11 December 1917, Page 6

HUN INCENDIARISM IN AMERICA.

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 25. The hand of the Hun-has been observed again in the United States by the recrudescene. of many disastrous fires which have broken out in widely separated sections of America, making it positively clear that the Hun campaign of ruthlessness has found new life in Uncle Sam’s territory. The German policy of sabotage was first noticed in New York among the docks of Allied shipping. Reports of incendiarism in connection with a disastrous waterfront fire which destroyed an elevator and nearly 700,000 bushels of grain in Brooklyn, were revived when

FIRE CHIEF KENTON, issued a statement saying the cause of the great blaze would be rigidly investigated. The property loss exceeded 1,200,000 dollars. “There have been fifty six waterfront fires in New York city lately, and it is improbable that all resulted from natural causes,” Chief Kenton Said. The grain consumed in the Brooklyn fire was for export to Great Britain. Superintendent Tommlins, in charge of the elevator, declared that the fire was caused by an explosion inside the structure. He said the nature of this explosion warranted the suspicion of a bomb “planter” being responsible. When the difficulty of combating the flames became apparent, every fire-boat in New York harbour and every other piece of apparatus was called into service, Chief Kenton said the fire was the most difficult he had fought since that which destroyed the Equitable Life building in New York on January .9, 1912. The fire was one of the most spectacular in the history of the New York waterfront. STOCKYARD DESTROYED.

While the New York fire was in progress another extraordinary conflagration occurred, and was one of the most horrible which has happened since the inception of the war, and was still another case of the hand of the Kaiser. The Hun incendiaries visited Kansas City, where are located the Kansas City stockyards, the second largest in North America. The great stockyard was practically wiped out in its entirety. There were 47,000 cattle in the yards at the close of business on the previous day, and flames broke out in the early part of the following morning. So rapidly did the flames gain headway that it was impossible to liberate all of the unfortunate animals, and neary 15,000 head of cattle were burned to death. It was a frightful sight, and the bellowing of the burning cows was most hideous. The blaze was discovered by two policemen, but before they could summon apparatus the fire had become unmanageable.. In addition to the cajttlo lost some 10,000 sheep w'crei burned tP death, AIRPLANE TIMBER BURNED.

A big timber mill near Eureka, in. California a day later was burned down to the ground by other incendiaries. At this factory many million feet of spec Ally selected timber was ready for shipment for the manufacture of thousands of airplanes for the United States and British Governments for use in the war. Hun miscreants are blamed for the destruction of the British-American Chemical Company’s plant in New York, whore the extensive factory for the manufacture of chlorine gas was completely wrecked by a violent explosion. Damage was estimated at 275,000 dollars. The factory was 250 ft. long and 200 ft. wide, and the explosion originated in the salicylic acid room.