New Britain herald., 1916-02-28
l5l MISSING FROM
 DESTROYED MALOJA
P. and 0. Line Steamer Blown
 Up Within Sight Of Land
CHILDREN BLOWN TO PIECES

Germans Thought to Have SOWn NcW
 Mine Field off English Coast by
 Using Neutral Commercial Steam
 ers-More Stringent Rules Probable
 London, Feb 2S, 1O:35 a. m.-Of the total complement of 411 passen- gers and crew on the Peninsula and Oriental Line steamship Maloja which an hour two miles off Dover yester- day, only 260 are known to have been saved. Of the total 119 pas sengers, G4 names of persons saved have been received at the steamship company's offices. It was stated there that it is hoped that more names of persons saved will still be received.
 T e bodies of three more Lascars of the crew of the Maloia have been washed ashore, making the total of bodies recovered AZ. Many relatives are arriving at Dover to endeavor to identify bodies.
 Among those rescued yesterday was a baby, warmly clad which was found floating on it's back. The child was
 
 taken into the engine room. After being warmed it smiled at it's rescuers and seemed none the worse for the immersion.
 Fresh Sowing of Mines.
 The British press is almost unani- nous in assuming that the MalOia and the other vessels sunk by mines during the weekend were victims of Q, fresh sowing of German mines. There is much speculation as to how these mines could have been laid. The theory most frequentlv advanced is that a certain class of neutral ship ping was employed.
 The Pail Mall Gazette suggests that such operations may drive England to still more stringent supervision of neutral shipping than has yet been ex- ercised by the admiralty.
 The Maloja left >Tilbury only yes terday for Bombay with mails, 119 passengers of all classes aboard and a crew numbering about 200, most of them Lascars. Other passengers were to join the ship at Marseilles.
 High Seas Running.
 The steamer had just passed Ad- mlralty Pier at DoNcr and was OppO- site Shakespeare Cliff. when an cX- plosion shook her from end to end. She listed Immediately to port. High seas were running, and the captain realizing that great damage had been done to the after part of his vessel tried to run her ashore but the en- zine room was swamped and the ship became unmanageab be.
 The plight of the vessel was Ob- of full speed to her rescue. One of them, the British tanker Empress of Fort William, of 2,1S1 tons, struck another mine and sank nearby
 Aboard the Maloja everything pos sible was done to get the passengers and crew off. All the boats had al- ready been swung out before she struck, as a precaution against ac- cident, and all those aboard had suf- f1c1ent time to put on lifeboats, in struction in the use of which had been given the previous evening.
 Boat after boat and a numebr of rafts were sent away, but several per- sons leaped into the water and were picked up by the surrounding craft It was at first thought that all had been saved, but later, bodies were washed ashore and their number was gradu- ally added to during the day.
 Houses on SDorc Shaken.
 Owing to the fact that Dover is under strict military law it was pos sible to obtain only meager details from those rescued. The captain said that both passengers and crew be- haved splendidy The scene of the disaster W3s two miles off the port and the explosion was so violent that houses along. the waterfront were shaken.
 The passengers were for the most part British officials in the Indian service, the most prominent being Judge OlGfield of the Indian High Court. Only one of the crew of the Empress of Fort William was drowned
 The peninsuIar X Oriental line steamship Maloja was an Australian mail boat and a sister ship of the Persia which was torpcdoed and sunk off the Island of Crete December 30 with the loss of 336 lives The Maloja was last reported as having arrived at Marseilles January 31 bound for Lon don from Sydney New South Wales The steamship was $50 feet long, 62 feet beam and 34 feet deep. She was built at Belfast in 1911.
 In February of 1915 it was reported that the Maloja on entering the Eng fish channel with 400 passengers on board was ordered to stop by an un- known armOred merchantmen. The mail boat is said to have ignored the order and made for Plymouth, where upon the merchantman fired five shells at her, although they all fenl short.
 Sinks in Twenty Minutes
 It was about l0:30 in the morning that the disaster occurred. The MalO- 1 ja was steaming GCWn the channel ; children playing on the deck and most