TWO MILLION DEAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 603, 4 March 1929, Page 13

TWO MILLION DEAD

CHINA GRIMLY RAVAGED FAMINE AND CIVIL WAR (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) j (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) j SHANGHAI, Saturday. More than 2,000,000 people in the province of Kansu—almost a quarter of its population—have perished in less than a year as a result of famine, the ravages of civil war and Moslem massacres. According to the latest reports from the stricken areas the true conditions within the province are difficult to ascertain. Communications are almost severed and investigators fear to venture into the area lest their food supplies should be stolen by the starving people. Half-dead victims who have succeeded in reaching neighbouring provinces relate tales of appalling suffering. Experts estimate that £5,000,000 worth of grain and seed will be required to save the remaining inhabitants from certain death, apart from immediate supplies of food to prevent seed being eaten. The country is stripped absolutely bare of vegetation and trees for hundreds of mile. The starving people | have commenced consuming earth, and the majority of them die quickly. Grave fears are held of an outbreak of plague. The authorities in the neighbouring provinces refuse to delete their own meagre stocks of food by aiding the sufferers.