THE CHINESE FAMINE.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1921, Page 11

THE CHINESE FAMINE.

BY’ AN EYE WITNESS. (Frederick Stubbs, F.R.G.S.) Shanghai, Oct. 9. I have just passed through some of the famine districts of North China, through miles of bare, brown earth that reminded me of Western Queensland during a drought; through whole regions

in which there is neither grass for cattle nor food for man. But even these great famine-striken areas are but; a fringe of the whole. Seven great provinces are affected, each of them almost as large as a small State—Chihli, Shantung, Honaii, Anwei, and to a lesser extent Shensi, Hupeh, and Kiangu. The actual famine area in these provinces rs said to exceed 49,000 square miles and to involve over 30,000,000 of people. Think of it—a larger population than that of New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Sweden, and Denmark put together. As Dominie Sampson says, it is simply “prodigious.” Perhaps the figures have been somewhat exaggerated; possibly there are not more than 25,000,000 human beings in this country on the verge of starvation, but even then what an appalling calamity to contemplate. As though enough death and destruction had not been caused by the great war, there now comes along this great famine, the greatest, it is said within the memory of living men. I sha’nt’ mind a bit if it turns out that my figures are wrong—that they have erred on the side of exaggeration: I only hope it may be so, but am not sanguine. As I came down from Pekin I saw mobs of refugees from the famine areas squatting about the railway stations, waiting * )6 taken to Manchuria or elsewhere where food is more plentiful. The sight reminded me of the crowds that throng the station yards in India, only in this case the crowds were half-famished, and would have to wait not merely hours but probably days for a train, and knowing this many of them had constructed rude shelters. There they were hundreds of men and women and children clothed only in rags, many of them stretching their hands out through the palisades for the coppers that were thrown to them by passengers. I wondered at first how, if they were so poor, they could afford to travel at all, but was informed that the Military Governors put them on the trains and send them to another district, partly jet us hope from humanitarian motives but chiefly, one fears, to get rid of hem. But the people of other districts are by no means anxious to receive them, and so they are kept moving on + r °? , st . at i° n station, from district to district, crowding the “trains of mervrZi a 9 le {-'hi nese call them, passing hither and thither in utter distraction, for no one wants the responsibility of caring for these homeless, hungry multitudes. The only hope of the small cultivators is to sell off their few animals and clear out to other districts where their lives may be prolonged a little by living on the proceeds, but in most cases one fears the little stock of money will come to an end bi fore the famine does. In some cases where these poor wretched people try to trek, the inhabitants •of other villages refuse to let them pass, whilst soldiers guard the mountain defiles.

FAMINE HORRORS. Sometimes the trekers, in order to reduce the number of mouths to be fed, tie their girls to trees in order to prevent their following, and leave them to starve. In some districts the poor people are trying to prolong their lives by eating grass, and weeds, and the bark of trees mixed with the chaff of wheat, but these will support life for a limited time only. In the neighborhood of Tientsin, where I stayed for about a -week, parents were selling their children for a dollar or two apiece. Both here and elsewhere parents were known to throw their children into the river, whilst in other cases, unable to endure the sight of their suffering, men have poisoned both wives and children. Mothers have been found dead, their babies still sucking their dead breasts. In one pitiable case, a family of six had been so reduced to utter starvation and misery that the father raised a little cash by the sale of his last possesions; went into the market and bought flour and meat, then made a feast. The children wondered how it came to pass that the family should have suddenly risen to such heights of luxury after feeding for months on such things as leaves and grass. The father told them that this was to celebrate some annual event. After the meal was finished, the whole family was found dead, the distracted father having selected this method of putting them out of their misery. Men have not always the heart to bury their dead, but * leave them lying there to be devoured by dogs. It seems hardly credible, but I have heard this from a friend who has seen it done. 'So bare are some of the districts that even the crows and jackdaws have left them. In Shantung Province I saw a pitiable sight. Somehow or other some small farmers had managed to raise a diminutive crop, by the aid of irrigation I presume. And how an army of locusts had come down upon the little fields—millions of them—and were stripping them bare. The women and children took pots and pans and banged them with pieces of wood in order to frighten the robbers away, but though I did not see the end of the struggle I fear the marauders were too numerous, and that what had been left by the drought would be devoured by the locusts. I don’t wonder that there have been many suicides. A sad thing, too, is that in some of these famine districts robbery on a large ‘Jcale has broken out, but this is not to be wondered at either. Bands of half-starved disbanded soldiers wander about consuming whatever they can lay their hands on. Robbery in the circumstances described above is wicked, diabolical. I don’t think it coujd occur in any Eng-lish-speaking land. But in China you have hundreds of thousands of ignorant, brutish men, not particularly cruel by nature, but driven, by fear or hunger ready for any devilry —and hunger is a merciless master. Amongst these starving millions there are. of course, many Christians, and it is feared that some congregations will as a consequence be broken up, though no doubt the missionaries will do what they can.

WHAT IS BEING DONE. All over China, indeed, the. Missions are bestirring themselves to save the starving multitudes, and not the Missions only, committees and associations of European and Chinese are being formed in most of the big centres. The i Government has set aside a sum of 2,000,900 taels (the tael to-day equals 5s fid) and proposes to increase the rates on railways, telegrams, telephones and postages for the relief of the famine striken. Th* President of Re-

public has just ordered that there be no celebrations, on National Day this year, and that funds that would otherwise have been spent shall be devoted to famine relief. The President and the Premier have each contributed 109,000 dollars and asked all Government officials to voluntarily tax themselves. The Civil Governor of Chihli has set aside 2,000,900 dollars. Here in Shanghai the Chinese propose to raiser a sum of 5,000,000 dollars, of which 2j000,000 dollars have already been contributed. One Chinese family alone has given the splendid donation of 400,000 dollars. The whole of the employees of the 120 Chinese banks in Shanghai have volunteered to give a month’s wage, a generous contribution when one calls to mind how low the rate of pay of Chinese clerks usually is. Nor is the European community idle. Subscription lists are being opened in banks and offices. I sec by to-day’s paper that the directors of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank have given 20,000 dollars; the firm of Jardine, Matheson and Co., 25,000, and the British and American Tobacco Co., 100,000. It is calculated that one dollar and a half will beep a man a whole month, Whilst 1| dollars will feed lOj) people for one day. There seems a general consensus that efforts shall be made to keep the starving in their own clistrictk, and to send food to them rather than vice versa. It is wisely too, that the bulk of the money must be spent—not in doles—but in providing work for the people on roads, reservoirs, etc. A careful watch is being, kept on moneys contributed, and I think we may be satisfied that it will be spent wisely.