14 JANUARY 1928, Page 1

For :miles, along the river, streets and basements of houses-

were flooded. At many points, of course, the flooding was 'gradual, but where the wall s broke suddenly there was a great outrush of water, and basements, as, for instance, in _Westminster . and at Hammersmith, were. Ailed tO " the éëiIingin afevi fourteen persons were drowned. The toll of damage to property has mounted day by day as new facts have become known. It appears from the reports from 'Westminster, Hammersmith, Fulham, Southwark, Lambeth, Battersea, Wandsworth, -Stepney, Deptford, Bermondsey, Rotherhithe and Greenwich that more than five thousand houses were damaged besides factories and warehouses. .In several Boroughs both above and below tondon Bridge, where no lives were lost, persons whose houses were below the level of the swollen tide have suffered acutely. Their furniture has been ruined, or smashed and their rooms are covered with slimy mud and other deposits of the flood.