The Hawaiian gazette., 1917-12-11
INVEST|GAT|ONOF
! CAUSE0F DISASTER
/ STARTS IN HALIFAX
Survivors of Norwegian Craft
That Was abandoned BY Crew
When In Flames Arrested
FRENCH CAPTAIN AND
PILOT ARE WITNESSES
Rain, SIeet Ice and Third Biz
zard Increase Misery But Re-
lief Trains Get Through

HALIFAX, December II--(Associa-
ted Press Pending the result of the
official investigation which has been
started to determine the responsibility
for the initial collision in the harbor
here, as q result of which came the
series of explosions and the wrecking
Of the city, the British officials yester.
day made prisoners of all the survivors
Of the Norwegian steamer limo, the
craft which is reported to have been
allowed to smash into a munition shin.
while ablaZe, her crew having opened
the seacocks and then deserted the yes
scAin small boats. ~.
Captain Lamedoc, of the French
steamer Mont Blanc, which is also i'm
plicated in the events leading up to
the great disaster, and Pilot Mackay,
who had the Mont Blanc in charcl
ut the time, are also being held pend.
ing the inquiry. ,.-.,
Blizzard Follows Rain .....
On Sunday night ffty.mile gale
swept over the city, accompanied by
torrential rain, which turned the
streets into ice and coated the ruins
over with sleety glaze. The elements
added greatly to the suffering through.
out the night. There were few hours
of respite from the storm during yes.
terday, but with the coming of late
afternoon another blizzard struck the
city this being the third since the
catastrophe of Thursday.
This storm has brought to another
check the recovery Of the dead from
the 1uins and has once more put the
extempgrized lighting system out Of
'eeis'nissicil, leaving the city in''dark
ness. t !
a Between the storms, hundreds Of
workers were busy buryiug the bodies
of the unidentified, dead, of which there
are several hundred. 1t was feared
that to keep these bodies longer for
Identification was to run the danger of
pestilence adding to the other hor-
rors of the week.
Relief Trains Arrive
Relief trains from number of
points arrived yesterday and the food
shortage has been relieved, while from
all over the Dominion offers of aid are
pouring in. II has been decided to
launch campaign for a twenty mil
,hOn-uOTlar renef fund in Canada, and
an appeal for this amount will be is
sued to the people of the Provinces by
Sir Robert Borden, the Premier. In
the name of the government, the Pre-
mier announced yesterday that he
would ask parliament for preliminary
relief fund of million.
4 revised list of casualties issued by
the emergency relief organization
places the known dead at 1900. There
are still 800 dead who have not been
identified, and the probability of
much larger death roll is seen in the
announcement that there are 1000 still
missing. The injured number 5000,
and $4,000 are homeless, their houses
burned to the ground or shattered by
the terrific explosions of last week
Deed Of Daring Told
A report of deed of daring that pre-
vented another great explosion was
made public yesterday. The deck ear
go of the British steamer Pieton, load
ed with munitions, caught FIRE on Sun
day night. The quick and courageous
work Of Haliax rifemen prevented an
explosion, They boarded the steamer
and threw overheard the burning cargo.
1t is officially announced that danger
of further explosions is at an end