THE FAMINE IN CHINA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 28 September 1907, Page 3

THE FAMINE IN CHINA.

VALUE OF FOREIGN AID. Shanghai, June 24. The terrible famine which has raged in Central China for several months is now virtually over; the crops planted with the seed distributed by the relief committees are being harvested; the missionaries who have labored so assiduously in the cause of humanity are gradually coming down to the. coast for a rest, and people are beginning to count the cost of lives and money.

The exact number of Chinese who perished will never be known, but the estimate recently made by a prominent member of the relief organisations, 1 consider, judging from conversations with many workers, very much exaggerated. He computed the loss in lives at over one million; but on going carefully into facts we find that the famine lasted less than eight months, and at the worst period the deaths were said to average 3000 a day, so that even had this figure been maintained for the full period of the famine the total mortality would have been less than three-quar-ters of a million.

HALF A MILLION LIVES LOST. The smallest estimate is three times the maximum death rate in the area affected, and this would give nearly half a million deaths. These figures, I believe, are a fair estimate of the .toll exacted by the terrible scourge. It may be said, in short, that the famine has not claimed anything like so many victims as was predicted would be the case. This is due in a great measure to the prompt way in which funds were subscribed, especially in America, and the manner in which foreigners, chiefly missionaries, who could speak the Chinese language spoken in the central provinces of the Empire, responded to the call for workers.

Fighting the ravages of famine has been a silent war in which China alone could have achieved little because of her official system, her bad financial organisation, and the crude, ineffective system of relief which the more honest officials adopted when left to themselves. It was reserved for the foreigner to point out the necessity for relic i" works, both for their intrinsic worth and to enable the authorities to distinguish between the really destitute and tbe mere loafer. Many districts in the famine area can point to the benefits derived from relief works inaugurated and supervised by foreigners; but there are also some where the Chinese officials have followed to good purpose the exi ample set them. To quote but one example, many miles of the Grand Canal north of Chinkiang are now in good repair, and this will help to prevent a catasjropbc in the future similar to that which occurred last year when the heavy rains fell. Much of the severity of the famine could have been prevented 1 by public works, of which the neglect can only be regarded as criminal. The difficulty too often was that officials were reluctant to spend money on such works, as they feared they might, soon after the inauguration of the work, be removed to another sphere of labor, and thus lose the large amount of money which it would have been necessary to disburse from the local exchequer, and which would otherwise have gone into their pockets. If order were introduce! into Chinese finances and an end put to the sale of positions, the business instincts of the nation would discover that it is cheaper to undertake suc'i works in time rather than wait until the misery their neglect causes has to be relieved. The two relief committees collected no less a sum than l,3l3,ooodn!s..anda!l but a small balance has Ikcii expended in the saving of life, combined in some cases with preventive measures against future famine. The small balance, unfortunately, wilr probably be insufficient for the demands made upon it this autumn.

I must record the fact that every foreigner in China, notwithstanding his opinion of missionary effort in the Empire, finds it at this time impossible t.i withhold a tribute from the devoted band of missionaries who have borne the whole burden of carrying relief to the famine sufferers. Old and young, men and women, all those in the districts affected, and many from other parts, have given a splendid exhibition of the faith that they hold. In three instances—two medical men—lives have lieen sacrificed to the task of relief; in many others health had been permanently impaired.