The Second within Six Months By Our Chenchow Correspondent Str. Siangtan Sept. 1.
An attempt was made last evening to set fire to the China Navigation Company's Str. Siangtan of the Hankow-Changsha Line, while the vessel was tied to her wharf at Hankow.
She was fully loaded and ready to leave at daybreak the. following morning. While walking on deck the chief steward smelt smoke, and found that it was coming from one, of the large ventilators. The source of the smoke was'found to be a cigarette tin in the hold of the ship. The tin had been filled with cloth and after being saturated with oil and ignited it had been lowered down through the. ven-filator. And judging from the oil along the inside of the ven-filator additional oil had been poured down with the intention of setting fire more quickly to the cargo in the hold.
Fortunately there was no very inflammable cargo under the ven-filator. The cigarette tin had fallen upon a case of milk and the wood was charred. It is thought that the kerosene oil poured down through the ventilator had probably extinguished the flame. One of the crew knew that he was soon to be discharged. He and two other members of the crew are under arrest. This is the second. attempt to burn the ship within the last six months,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.