INQUIRY DEMANDED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 February 1942, Page 4

INQUIRY DEMANDED

0 BY U.S.A. CONGRESSMEN INTO NORMANDIE FIRE. INEXCUSABLE NEGLIGENCE DENOUNCED. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.0 a.m.) WASHINGTON. February 13. Demands for a Congressional investigation into the Normandie fire were made today. Members of both the House, of Representatives and the Senate expressed indignation at the inexcusable negligence that had occurred. In the House of Representatives, Mr Bates, a member of the House Naval Affairs Committee, said he would ask for the appointment of a committee to investigate the disaster. He said the country was tired of the flippancy with which responsible authorities were assuming their duties. The people were demanding to know why such negligence prevailed. Senator Brewster declared that the fire was another Pearl Harbour, because the Normandie had a greater value than a battleship at this particular time. He said there was a similar situation last year when he found a thousand Japanese working on the naval dry dock at Pearl Harbour. Other Congressmen spoke in a similar strain, and pointed out that if the disaster had not occurred the Normandie would have entered service within a fortnight.