FAMINE & DEATH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 April 1943, Page 3

FAMINE & DEATH

WIDESPREAD IN CENTRAL CHINA MILLIONS OF PEASANTS STARVING. “SAFER” JAPANESE POLICY. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK, March 31. ■While the prospects of the winter-planted wheat in Honan Province, central China, are excellent, thousands of Chinese are dying of starvation, and it is doubtful whether any will be left to bring in the harvest, says the Chungking correspondent of the “New York Times.” The estimates of the dead vary between 1,000,000 and 3,000,000 while some 11 to 20 millions are affected. Most of the peasantry have sold or abandoned their land and have joined in the trek southward. The highways and railways are strewn with dead. The bulk of the refugees are eating grass, straw and certain types of earth. The Central Government has ordered the release of military wheat to the refugees, but how soon this will be effective is not known. The Associated Press correspondent in Chungking says that the Japanese retention of Kwajung threatens to deprive the Chinese of the rice fields in that region. Speaking at a Press conference in Washington, the Chinese Foreign Minister, Dr. Soong, declared that Japan had inaugurated a safer policy in occupied China, which was apparently designed to keep the Chinese quiet while preparing for new thrusts against the British and Americans.' The commanders of the Japanese garrisons had been instructed to treat the conquered Chinese more gently, and various concessions had been restored to the Chinese.. Today’s Chinese communique says that the Japanese have begun an offensive which is apparently intended to disperse Chinese troop concentrations between the Yangtse and Han Rivers west of Hankow. No details are disclosed. The Chinese are continuing their onslaughts against the Japanese round Kwajung. They penetrated the enemy lines lat several pojnlts, and close-quarter fighting resulted, in which the Japanese suffered 300 casualties. Nevertheless, the main Japanese line in northern Hunan Province is still firm.