In Southampton people to the last moment clung to the hope that better news of the Titanic would be received, but on Tuesday afternoon the whole town was overcome with gloom.

Flags were at half-mast on the public buildings and in the docks, and a meeting of the Harbour Board called for the afternoon was abandoned as a mark of sympathy with he sufferers. A letter was read from Colonel Philipps, M.P. for the borough, expressing his deepest symapthy with the inhabitants, and the Mayor said that the sympathy of Southampton and of all the civilized world went out to the sufferers from the frightful calamity. On his initiative a vote of condolence was adopted. One member of the Harbour Board had a son on board the Titanic, and an ex-member of the Board was a passenger.

Nearly a thousand families in Southampton are directly concerned in the fate of the crew alone, and in most cases the only breadwinner of the family has been lost. It is impossible to walk through the principal streets without meeting people who had friends on board, and the majority of the officers and crew were well known in the port. The shipping offices of the White Star Line were besieged all day by distressed women, for since the report was received that a considerable number of the crew had been saved there was keen anxiety for further particulars. In some of the poorer streets, where firemen and seafarers live in large numbers, very sad sights were witnessed. In some streets nearly every house was represented on board the Titanic, and the manner in which the bereaved women fastened on to the faintest glimmer of fresh intelligence was painfully pathetic.

It was reported on Wednesday night that many relatives with brief periods of intermission have been waiting continuously for 24 hours for tidings of the breadwinners of many humble homes. The suspense is agonising, and many heart-rending scenes have been witnessed.

The President of the Shipping Federation has telgraphed to the Mayor of Southampton that the Federation will give 2000 guineas to his relief fund for the distressed dependants of the crew of the Titanic.

Many agencies are at work in Southampton for the relief of the distress occasioned by the loss of so many of the Titanic's crew. The Mayor on Wednesday paid a visit to the Lord Mayor of London, to confer with him as to the measures to be taken.

Sympathetic reference was made to the disaster before the business of the Borough Police Court was proceeded with on Tuesday morning. The Mayor (Councillor H. Bowyer, R.N.R.) said he felt sure he would be expressing the regret, which would be shared not only by the people of Southampton, but by the people in the whole world, at the awful calamity which had befallen the Titanic. As yet, they had had no definite information, but they hoped to hear later that the loss of life was not so great as they were led to believe. They knew the ship had gone, and it seemed incredible that out of the 3000 people on board everybody could have been saved. They feared there must have been some loss of life, but they hoped the loss of life was not so great as was feared. While the statement was being made, the Bench, and the officials, and the solicitors practising in Court, remained standing.