§ SIR HENRY TYLER (Great Yarmouth)asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether he has yet received any information which he can communicate to the House in regard to the causes and results of the failure of the bund or embankment, and the flooding of Mandalay; and, whether he can state under what department of the administration and under what officer in particular the responsibility for guarding against such a serious source of danger was vested?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY or STATE (Sir JOHN GORST) (Chatham)The following information respecting the recent inundation at Mandalay has been received from the Viceroy:—The breach in the bund is 300 feet wide. Not more than a dozen bodies have been found, as people had plenty of time to clear out of their houses Total loss of life is probably under 25. No European seems to have been drowned. Much of food stuffs in the bazaar has been destroyed or spoilt; but piece goods were generally saved before the water rose. The obvious cause of the accident was an unprecedented rise of the river. When the flood assumed extraordinary propor- 543 tions danger was apprehended, and every effort was made to strengthen the embankment. It was also patrolled day and night; but, of course, precautions of this kind are not of much avail if the weight of water is greater than the earth can sustain. The whole of the low-lying parts of the town have been inundated. Arrangements were at once made to supply gratuitously food to persons rendered destitute; but very few applicants have presented themselves. The flood is subsiding. The water in the river being now lower than that behind the bank, the latter has been cut lower down stream in order to let the accumulated water escape. There is no suspicion of the accident having been occasioned by any malicious person. The Commissioner has been instructed, as soon as he has ascertained all further facts, to report them in detail.