TROUBLED CHINA

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 169, 13 April 1932, Page 6

TROUBLED CHINA

Flood Problems & War

REHABILITATION WORK Anti-Japanese Feeling According to Mr. Rewi Alley, who has been resident for the past five years iu China, the Chinese have no intention of letting the Japanese do what they like at present. Mr. Alley, formerly of Christchurch, who arrived in Wellington yesterday by the Zealandia, said that when be left Shanghai about a mouth ago, things appeared to be about normal in the International Settlement, but Northern Shanghai and the cities of Kiang Wan and Woo Sung resembled a piece of war-time France. Air. Alley is a building inspector employed by the Shanghai Municipal Council, but in December was lent to the Chinese Government to work with the National Flood Relief Commission. The commission has for its directorgeneral Sir John Hope-Simpson, lent by the League of Nations, who has had considerable experience of famine relief work in various parts of the world. Most of the damage was done in the Hupeh province, Mr. Alley said, and the flood was considered the greatest that had occurred in modern times. The flood directly affected some 50 million people, and caused terrible destruction and distress. The commission was now devoting its efforts to reconstruction work, and 250,000 refugees were being employed on a comprehensive scheme to prevent future damage, by a system of dykes. It was to the credit of the Chinese Government that, although during recent months it bad been greatly occupied with trouble in Manchuria and Shanghai, it had been able to carry on rehabilitation work in the flooded areas, and successfully prevent the flood waters from inundating the farming lands again. Depression, War and Floods. In regard to the Sino-Japanese trouble, Mr. Alley said that, as Shanghai was the most important city in the East, and the commercial centre of China, the holding up of trade by the hostilities necessarily meant the loss of many millions of dollars. The effects of the present world-wide depression, which were previously felt in China, were considerably accentuated by the war, and also by the great floods. The flooding of vast areas of land rendered the whole year’s crops useless ; there was practically no economic return from the whole of the Yang-tse valley. For instance, one small district in the Hupeh province which produced 2,000,000 dollars worth of cotton in 1920, produced nothing last year, and would probably’ produce nothing this year. The floods covered a large portion of the provinces of Hupeh, Hunan, Kiang-si, Anhwei and Kiangsu. In Kiang-su a great deal of the water was still on the ground and there the Government were building dykes and great canals, which probably would not be finished until this year. Famine Relief. For two and a. half years, Sir. Alley worked with the International. Famine Relief Commission. His work took him up into North-West China, Inner Mongolia and in the Suiyuan province. In this area there had been a succession of droughts for three years which had rendered a large proportion of the rural population destitute. During operations there, the Chinese Red Cross Society rescued a group of better class boys, one of whom, A. Tuan, Mr. Alley subsequently adopted, and who is accomi'anying him on his present trip. The boy, Mr. Alley said, was one of the few who had received any Chinese education, and for the past two and a half years had been attending St. John’s Y.M.C.A. School attached to the University of Shanghai. He bad learned to speak English in that time. The school was now closed owing to the war, and in the recent months the boy had been working with the Chinese Red Cross Society assisting with the war casualties. Anti-Japanese Feeling. Chinese people were terribly bitter against the Japanese, and it would take a great many years before relations between the two races were normal again, Mr. Alley said. The hostilities had keyed the Chinese up to a high pitch of excitement, and created an exceedingly strong antiJapanese feeling. The position at present was that the Japanese had occupied portions of Chinese territory, and in Kiang Wan and Woo Sung (outside the International Settlement in Shanghai) there were large numbers of troops concentrated together with considerable quantities of warlike material. including aeroplanes. When Mr.. Alley left Shanghai be saw several Japanese transports discharging contingents of troops, and Japanese warships wore anchored outside of Shanghai, Hangkow and Nankin. No one could tell what would be the outcome of the position in the future, but it was certain that the Chinese .were not going to let the Japanese do just what they liked without any opposition. Mr. Alley, who is a brother of Mr. G. Alley, the All Black footballer, left for the south last night, and proposes to return to China in July.