We have received the following official account of the Tongshan mine explosion from the Kailan Mining Administration, together with a translation of the report on the disaster by the Lanchow magistrate and the Chief of Police at Tongshan The report of the first named is as follow:
On the afternoon of Thursday last, the 14th instant, a very serious explosion occurred in the Kailan Mining Administration's Tongshan Mine, The explosion set fire to the coal and the mining timber in the gallery in which it occurred, and the gas and smoke produced in great volume by the explosion and fire percolated through the other workings, in which a large number of coolies were employed at the time.
Rescue work was immediately started under the direction of the Acting Engineer-in-Chief and the foreign staff at the Tongshan wine, who when the gravity of the accident was realized called in the aid of the Engineer-in-Charge of the Chaokochuang mine and his four foreign assistants. Substanti al help was rendered to the foreign engineers by a number of contractors and coolies of the Tongshan mine. The rescuers penetrated into every part of the mine at the earliest possible moment that circumstances permitted. Through their efforts 119 labourers were brought alive to the surface and resuscitated but the Administration has with great regret to report a death-roll of 422 including two foremen, the deaths being due to suffocation by fumes and smoke.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.