300,000 FEARED DEAD

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 288, 1 September 1931, Page 9

300,000 FEARED DEAD

China’s Ravening Flood GRAND CANAL BURSTS Water Enters Eight Towns SITUATION OUT OF HAND By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright Shanghail, August 31. Official reports at Nanking estimate the total loss of life along the Grand Canal at 800.000 as the result of the collapse of the dykes in densely-populated areas of the Yangchow district following a typhoon which passed on August 25. Owing to lack of communication, the Provincial Governor was unable to report the catastrophe before. Following unprecedented rains, 15 sections of the canal collapsed, completely submerging eight towns, Kaoyu, containing 500,000 inhabitants, suffering the worst. The Kiangsu Government is unable to cope with the situation, which renders relief measures almost beyond control. The Hankow situation is unchanged. A cholera epidemic has broken out, compelling the evacuation of practically all foreigners. President Chiang Kai Shek has arrived at Hankow to discuss relief measures and to counter the expected Communist attacks. The waters are receding and the flood situation is now easier. The authorities at Shanghai are shipping wheat, flour, and rice, and are planning refugee camps on distant hills, where they will be less menacing to peace and to health.

China’s Grand Canal, although a r«markable piece of engineering work, and the longest canal in existence, covering approximately 1000 miles, in recent decades has been allowed to deteriorate badly. To-day portions of it are so silted up that navigation is impossible. The canal crosses the Yangtsee and the Yellow Rivers, and was commenced in the year 540 B.C. In 610 A.D. it was extended southwards to Hangchow, and in 1320 A.D. run northward to Pegin. It presents great problems because of the fact that it crosses several rivers at right angles, and that portions are in a baa state. For the improvement of this sector, a loan of 6,000,000 dollars was negotiated with the American International Corporation in 1917. A party of American engineers visited the spot in 1919 and made reports, and in 1920 Mr. J. R. Freeman, a well-known American consulting engineer, went to China to make a survey. In January last the Chinese Government invited the League of Nations to allow Mr. Robert Haas, the director of the League’s transport and communications organisation, to make a visit to China for the purpose of discussing the problem of inland waterways and land reclamation. The invitation was accepted, and Mr. Haas reported to the League on June 1 ‘ On June 1 the league’s commission heard Mr. Haas explain the details oj its part in a vast scheme for league aid in the reconstruction of China. Mr. Haas said there were three main transit problems on which China wanted immediate help—first, a means of preventing the Hwai River floods and at the same time permitting the drying up of lake and reclamation of fertile lands; secondly, the flood regulation of five rivers whose mouths are in the region of Tientsin and whose regular inundations submerge vast areas, causing much damage; thirdly, the improvement of the port of Shanghai. Mr. Haas explained that China wanted the transit organisation to provide experts for these jobs and help to organise and develop a technical study centre, the chief object of which would be to train Chinese as public works engineers.