Although, as usual, the early reports of the toll of life taken in the terrible railway disaster near Patna ye to be modified as the result of further investigation the fact that over a hundred persons were killed is bad enough and is all the more horrible because, apparently, there was a deliberate intent to wreck the train, No reason is assigned for this sabotage. It may be that it was the work of dacoits who have been known before now to adopt the method of taking up rail in the hope of being able to put in useful work in robbing passengers during the resultant confusion, Political terrorism has also resorted to such villainy. It may. however, be worth mentioning that in that part of Bihar the frequent floods prevailing are attributed by peasants to the high railway embankments and the derailment may quite easily be the work of some incensed upholder of that theory. Committees have sat to study the problem and it is be-leved that measures have been taken to mitigate the embankment's obstruction to the drainage of flood water. but the vagaries of the Indian river 2re no less incalculable than those of rivers elsewhere.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.