Appeal on Behalf of the Famine Stricken in China.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2981, 8 July 1878, Page 3

Appeal on Behalf of the Famine Stricken in China.

' We (Protestant Advocale) have been requested to publish the following appeal on behalf of the famine - stricken m China. In consequence of tbe terrible famine feotn which several millions of people in the north of China are suffering, occasioned by a protracted drought, it has been decided to .appeal to the benevolent public of South Australia to send a practical proof of their sympathy to those who are famishing and driven to the direst extremities.

The four provinces which are lor the most part famine-stricken are Shansi, Shensi, Honan, Che-lee, which are divided into about 80 districts, covering an extent of country of about 264,000 English square miles, with a population of more than 70,000.000. ' Of these the names of from 8,G00,C00 Ij 9,000,000 were down for relief, and it is estimated that 1,000,000 have already succumbed to this dreadful calamity, A memorial from the Governor of Shansi, published in the Pekin Gazette announces that over 16C0 were dying daily from starvation in that dis trict alone; and in the several provinces affected by the famifre it is said that in the aggregate thousands perish everyday. Mr Timothy Kicbards, writing from Taiyuen-Fu, in the heart of the Province of Shansi, states that the people tried all sorts of things to allay the pangs of hanger—tree-leaves, bark, rotten straw, and roots ; and. the hill-sides were swept clean for grass-seeds. When none of these things could be got, their houses were pulled down to sell the timber in them for fuel. Poors *§nd windows, old and new, were split up to be sold, twenty pounds for a penny. Land was sold at eighty and ninety per cent, discount, i.e., land usually worth one hundred sold for ten or twenty. The wives and daughters were sold at prices varying from two to twenty shillings. Terribly painful as all that was, and extreme as measures were, they could not keep away starvation. Villages of a hundred families reported ninety dead, or fled, or sold (mostly dead) and smaller villages suffered still more.

In a letter from Hong Kong, dated March 29, recently published, it is said that "suffering of the famished peasantry is increasing. Harrowing letters are received, showing that the roads are cambered with the dying and the dead, and. that those now surviving are in a majority of cases too weak to move. In many instances, too, men and women are even afraid to wander about searching for food, as they often mysteriously disappear, and from the appearance of many corpses on the roadside, the flesh from which has been cut away, it is not bard to believe that human beings are attacked and killed for the suke of being eaten. At a town called Lunanfu, on the borders of the Province of Sbansi, a shop was actually kept open for three days for the sale of human flesh, till the authorities interfered and decapitated tKe proprietor. This will nevertheless, show the condition to which things have arrived. Towards the relief of the famine-stricken the Government of China has already voted the sura of £250,000 which has well-nigh exhausted the national treasury. Many wealthy Chinese have contributed liberally, £20,090 having been collected in Tienstin alone, besides large sums given by other towns. Subscriptionlists towards collecting relief funds are being vigorously circulated at Hong Kong and at all the treaty ports. A. movement has been made in England to raise a fund for the relief of the famishing Chinese, under the auspices of Sir Thomas Wade, late British Plenipotentiary to Pekin, who has furnished information confirming in the main the reports circulated from other sources of this dire calamity. A liberal response is expected from the mother country, several thousands having been already contributed. A similar movement has been made in Americas

In Melbourne some of the leading Chinese have appealed for assistance for their starving countrymen, which has not been made in vain, and the Committee which has been appointed to collect funds in this colony for the above benevolent objsct feel assured that they need only lay the foregoing facts before a sympathising public <o ensure a response worthy of South Australia, which on former occasions of this kind nave done nobly. Whatever feelings may exist as to the introduction of Chinese emigrants among us, there can be but one. sentiment as to the duty of relieving these famishing millions. They are our fellow-creatures. They are enduring terrible privations. A kind Providence has blessed us with abundance, and it will ill-beome us, because of the difference of race, to withhold from them that help they so greatly need, and which is in our power to give. H. Scott (Mayor), Chairman, A. Abbahams, Treasurer, * J. F. Conigbave,*) W. C. Habbis, fjt s H. Hitssey, J Hon. Sees. A. MOIINEATTX, ) Town Hall, Adelaide, May 29, 1878. '