The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-09

LONDON, Sept. S.-(By Associated Press.) .)-With ring of bayonets ex- tending around the gigantic sham bles where a week ago Tokio and Yokohama were in flames, teeming millions of Japanese are feverish ingly laboring, piling up the dead, clearing away the ruins and build ing temporary structures to house the homeless thousands, who are en- camped like great armies in the streets and the plazas where the cities stood.
 This ring of bayonets, backed by Japanese soldiers, symbolizes the power that saved Japan after earth- quake, flood and fire had laid waste one of the richest and most thickly settled sections of the island empire and the district where nearly all the foreigners in the country live.
 When every ether instrument of law and order seemed annihilated, with the new cabinet only in the process of taking office, the Japan ese government still had it's army.
 The army had it's own transport and It's own commfssarlat ready for earthquakes. for, in a land of rum bling volcanoes nightly, fires and earthquakes weekly and disastrous typhoons every year, horror is never far away. Immediately after the first great shock a week ago long lines of khaki-clad troops marched toward the stricken district from the barracks which top many of Tokio's hills and knolls and provincial divis- ions were ordered tC the district around the capital. In the open spaces about the imperial palace and in the Hibiya, Ueno and Asakusa parks, according to dispatches re- ceived in London, the troops stacked arms and took up the work of fight t1o hy fpr down hundreds flimsy houses built of paper and wood and by dynamiting the moro permanent structures.
 Only Way to Halt Flames.
 With the water mains torn up by the earthquake, the destruction of houses in large numbers was the only means to stop the spread of the flames and thus prevent the burning of the entire city.
 Around the devastated districts was through a line of soldiers which completely cut off Tokio and sur rC unding towns from the rest of Ja- pan. Only those who have come in for government business or relief workers were permitted to pass. Even numerous correspondents ana photographers had the greatest dlffl- culty In gaining entrance.
 Through the military lines were escorted thousands of refugees walking, riding in rickshas and man pulled carts, carrying all their worldly possession; they were on their way back to the country dis tricts, to remain there until new houses have been constructed.
 When the land and sea disturbance settled down and the fires burned themselves up to the barriers of the palace meats and the wide lanes which had been torn out by the fire fighters other military forces took up the relief work and reconstruc- tion on which all energy now Is con centrated. The military Is also Tn control of all incoming relief sup plies, which are being distributed to the destitute.
 One week after the catastrophe, the dead remain uncounted. Each even ing piles of bodies covered with rice straw lie in the streets, evidence of the awful toll of death. By morning they have been removed to the ere matories, and the work of collecting other bodies starts afresh. There is little time for Identification and lit tie use to attempt it in the case of those who met death by the flames. Inquests are held hundreds at time.