A STARVING PEOPLE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10407, 30 August 1911, Page 6

A STARVING PEOPLE.

Fam,:.::e is. 'still raging in Itba Chaiiicsa provisoes of Kiangsiu 'and Anhv;ei. Tint- population of a tract of country two hundred miles lowg "by on-c ihumdired miles wide lias been suffering the pangs of hunger for a period of ever six months, anoMt is reported by the European residents rtlia.t the mew ih.airv.est, which was expected to ib-e isecured this imonth, .will be a partial failure. The Chimes© authorities, with Eastern stoicism, have made' no iserious effort to avelieve Ithe distressed districts. _ _ A newspaper correspondent who visited the scene a. few weeks ago reported that between two -and three million people were .short of food, and many of them might .be* expected to die be-, fore the parsing of the. lean months, while thousands had already .succumbed. The wtorking .classes weiro dependent for existence on. the tiny' dols. of rice provided by missionary organisations and official relief .stations, eked out by weeds and, the bark and root's, of trees-. The correspondent was particu.la.rly impressed by the wonderful self-control exercised by .the starving people. They knew that death stared Ithem in the face, but they did no more than ; sluow their pitiable plight and then wait quietly for the help that might never come. The cause of the con-ista-nitily recurring famines in Anhwei and' is the Kilting of the rivers, 'which, have been, permitted to flow uncontrolled for thousands of. yearst, and have, raised Ithe levels of their beds. The Chinese, with a- lack of forethought not unparalleled in Biritish oommunitdss, have destroyi ed the. forests that should hold baok ithe flood waters, and great areas of agricultural land' are inundated with increasing frequency. The only reml edy is to bo found in the prosecution iof enormous engineering works, and I isoimte day the Chinese Government I may decide to take .action, an ttihat direction.