Mr. and Mrs, W. J. C. Brown, of Upper Beaconsfield, Victoria, Australia, were in the Grand Hotel at Yokohama and had remarkable escapes. They were just about to leave for Nikko and were by themselves: in the dining room, having an carly tiffin, when the house collapsed. The walls simply came at us," said Mr. Brown. "It was wonderful how we escaped. I crawled from the debris and found my wife had been thrown beneath a table, across which a beam rested, thus saving her life. *We got cwt unhurt except for a slight wound or two, and then saw. the whole building a pile of ruins, the two lower floors having sunk into the ground. There was no. sign of other people, and there was a deathly silence. We made our way towards the Reclamation Ground, through streets torn open with great fissures, while fires broke out in all directions and a series of appalling explosions occurred."
Mr. and Mrs. Brown remained on the Reclamation Ground until boats were sent from the Australia to gather the refugees, as also from the Andre Lebon, the Korea Maru, and other vessels. They also speak in high praise of the service thus rendered, doctors and nurses and officers and passengers on the Australia doing heroic work. The passengers gave away all their spare clothing, and later on raised a fund of between $9,000 and $10,000 gold dollars, which sum was placed in the hands of a Committee at Kobe.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.