THE FAMINE IN CHINA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15558, 7 March 1911, Page 6

THE FAMINE IN CHINA.

Tne inefficiency of tho Chinese administration is illustrated in a ghastly fashion by the terrible famines which periodically devastate large areas of tho empire. Tho famine in northern Anhui and Kiangsu, which we are told this morning is increasing in severity, was spreading death and misery over the afflicted provinces two months ago. An area of about twelve thousand square miles, occupied by not fewer than four million people, is affected, and the Shanghai “National Review” states that the trouble could have been avoided without great difficulty. Four years ago there was a. famine in tho same provinces and on that occasion ■the foreign community in Shanghai undertook relief measures. Money was raised by subscription in Europe and America and enormous sums were distributed in tho purchase of foodstuffs and in the form of cash grants. The authorities at Pekin started some relief works at a- late stage, hut they showed no understanding of the real seriousness of the situation. This year the Shanghai residents are demanding that the Chinese Government shall move surplus food from the surrounding provinces into the famine area and provide against tho looting of the supplies while they are in transit. Tho fact that the population is moving southward suggests that no effective relief measures have been taken, however, and it is probable that tho officials are simply waiting, with characteristic fatalism, for tho shortage of food to provide its own remedy by reducing the population. Life is still very cheap in the East.