The Liner Fire There is still a good deal to
clear up about the disastrous fire on the ' Georges Philippar,' and it may be some days yet before the total of dead is known. That a short-circuit (for that seems pretty definitely to have been the origin of the fire) should be capable of starting a conflagration with which the fire-fighting equipment of the most up-to-date of modern liners cannot deal is surprising and alarming. That the liner's own boats should have played so small a part in the work of rescue is another matter that needs explaining. The actual number on board the vessel when she sailed has been variously stated, but at the moment of writing there is a possible death-roll of over ninety, though dhows and other vessels may have picked up survivors who have not yet been able to report. If the sea had been rough instead of smooth the dead would have been numbered by hundreds. There is clearly no sufficient material available yet for any definite conclusions about the disaster. But the most searching enquiry possible is demanded, for on the facts so far disclosed it might be inferred that the disaster was an unavoidable accident, and that the same thing might therefore happen at any time to any other ship. The records of sea-travel happily justify no such conclusion as that, but it is essential to discover what went wrong, and what safety provisions failed, on the ' Georges Philippar.'
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