Hankow, Jan. 4.
With the thermometer reg ing a maximum of 27 d yesterday and a strong wind blowing, Hankow is nipped in heavy frost. The snow which has fallen during the last few days is of course unmelted. A coolie collapsed and died on the foreshore during the afternoon and up to dusk no tone had claimed his body. There have been of air mail was delayed and many telegraph wires are down in the outlying districts 30 that Communications are interrupted. Military planes which were due to Jeave for the front failed to get way owing to the high wind and the poor visibility, For the same reasons the steam ferries only anaintained a limited service, and many persons made perilous crossings in sailing craft, One boat put out from Hankow with six passengers and was seen to overturn The frost in Hankow gots more! and more severe. On Saturday the maximum temperature was 28 and the minimum 24 but on Sunday the maximum was only 24 and the minimum was down to 22. Foreigners who have lived in the port for thirty and more years can only Yemember one year to compare with this one, Large numbers of young Chinese walked out yesterday to Point where the Han River is nearly frozen across.
One of the worst sufferers is the Race Club as its buildings are) exposed to the full force of the! Wind, "Most of the pipes there are] frozen. One or two blocks of large Tesidential flats are having serious trouble with their heating apparatus, and almost every private house has badly frozen pipes. Some of the big mains between the Waterworks and the Concession area have burst so that the pre sure is seriously reduced and the event of a serious fire the, supply would be inadequate.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.