Hundreds of people on the Bund were startled by a deafening explosion at 9 p.m. yesterday as five tins of gasoline on board the 22-ton motor houseboat Graca, owned by a compradore of Butterfield & Swire, exploded, setting fire to the vessel. Onlookers were later thrilled by the spectacle of the blazing boat sweeping downriver as the houseboat cast loose from its moorings at the China Navigation Company's Pootung Wharf and drifted downstream with the tide.
The fire float Poo Chi of the Har-hour Fire Brigade immediately responded to the call and coming alongside the flaming houseboat managed to extinguish the flames in about five minutes, The fire-fighters were aided in their work by the British warships in the river, searchlights from the gunboats being continually played on the scene of the fire.
The houseboat was a complete loss as it sunk when members of the crew attempted to beach it at Pootung Point. Of the five Chinese boatmen on board the vessel only one man suffered any injury, receiving bums about the body, and he was conveyed to the Paulun Hospital by a Shanghai Fire Brigade Ambulance. All of the members of the crew were rescued, Win, $25.40. Forecast 2-1 Div. $81.40. ind $10.70.
2, Sandals. to foreign governments that any propaganda activities which they encountered would be subjected to minute scrutiny,—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.