GREAT FLOODS IN CHINA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 80, 28 December 1917, Page 8

GREAT FLOODS IN CHINA

APPALLING LOSS OF LIFE.

The tvp'hoon disaster in part of Japan is nothing to what is being suffered in China .in the province of Chihli (writes the "New East"). Drought throughout; the spring and summer, threatening famine on a formidable scale, was ■succeeded in the late summer and early autumn' by heavy rains. The rivers debouching upon the Chihli plain from the western hflls all burst their batiks. The Jesuit was a huge lake, estimated' to measure 15,000 square miles. Most of the Chihli rivers havo no outlet! to the sea, but lose themselves in the marshy region north and west of Tientsin: When floods come upon this region they stay, sometimes for two or three years. The present floods exceed anything that lias .occurred for a quarter of a century. The flooded country is rich and thickly populated by agriculturists, mostly living in mud villages. In ordinary flood times the water surrounds the villages and penetrates into tho streets without damaging the .houses. It leaves a rich covering of silt on the fields, and if there is so'me damage to property it is compensated for bv the increased fertility of the land. When the floods are heavier the houses are invaded and collapse, and the inhabitants have to flee, aud may not be able to cultivate their land for a year or more. This happened in 1912. when 70,000 of the people on the Chihli plain were mado homeless. This autumn the floods tsceed all experience, 'and as tliere is no possible means of removing the water it is safo to say that by the time winter sets in millions will have lost their lives by drowning or starvation.

Tientsin, more or less protected by dykes from ordinary floods, has been inundated, the native city and the Japanese concession suffering most. Within the city the homes of hundreds of thousands have bnen destroyed or rendered uninhabitable, while the majority of the foreign-houses in the concessions have two or three feet/' rf water in the lower rooms. •Thmisands of refugees have come into the city destitute and starving. One gruesome story is 'told of the inhabitants of a village, numbering who set forth on rafts made of doors, tables, chairs, logs of wood, and anything that would float, seeking a place of refuge. They were overtaken by a storm, :.nd all were drowned. The situation between Tientsin .>ncl Paotingfu cannot I>b' described, for nothing is known of it beyond the fact that the'country is flooded and devastated. Tientsin itself 'is in a critical position, for the' Grand Canal, which is in • reality, for 100 miles before reaching Tientsin, the course of the Wei River, is pouring water into it. I'here is the danger of the Yellow River leaving its present course and flowing north into the Wei, snid thereafter seeking a new outlet to the sea. Up to October 10 there has heoh no subsidence of ihe water at Tientsin, and thoro is grave fear that frost may set in before schemes for pumping tho concessions dry can be put into operation. Damage to property in that case would be enormous when tho thaw set in. Disease is also feared, for nearly 1,000,000 people are dwelling in what is practically stagnant •water.