FLOODS IN CHINA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 232, 24 June 1908, Page 7

FLOODS IN CHINA.

GREAT SUFFERINGS. BY TBLXGRAPB —PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT 6 V Peking, Juno 22. There is a groat inundation at AVuchang (a town of half a million, located on the right bank of tho Yang-tse-kiang, near the confluence of tho Han-kiang) and in neighbouring villages. . • The inhabitants are taking refuge on house-tops. Many aged persons are dying from exposuro. INUNDATIONS AND ATTENDANT EVILS. In tho Yang-tse-kiang Valley floods havo a doublo dangor; they not only drown, but often starve. Faminos in this part of China are of two'olasses—those caused by drought and those caused by floods, and though the former are the more deadly (sinco;the higher lands do not escape), tho numbers starved after the last big floods are estimated at millions, Referring to these floods, a writer in the "Christian World" wrote:—"ln this case not only was tho district inundated, but torrential rains ruined those crops that might have been harvested, and so serious was tho inundation that, almost six months after tho event, the land is so much under water that the wheat crop for next midsummer harvest'cannot even yet be sown." Tho people north of the Yang-tse-kiang suffered more . than; those in the wealthier districts south. The same writer adds that the dearth of fuel at snch timos is almost as widespread as that of food. In some cases coffins ore broken up. to provide the means to' cook the scanty nourishment. • ! .