THE FAMINE IN CHINA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10963, 4 May 1907, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE FAMINE IN CHINA.

a -tagg-ring , calamity. Millions atJdeath's door. The caiamity that has befallen the peaceful, industrious people of China is ■-:■ not of their i own creation. Rain fell, as m the days oi Noah, lor forty days without a break ; the waters oveiriowed a hundred miles to the east and a hundred miles V the west, a- hundred miles to the north arid a hundred miles to the south, submerging farms, destroying crops, uprooting houses, and leaving despair, destruction, and starvation ln-their "killing the a6ed AND THE • . , . OHILDREiI ;- " Thus forty thousand square miles were compelled to staud the unusual strain, and fifteen million of people became impoverished. So intense is the. suffering now that parents kill their childien by throwing mem iri the rivers, or administering poison, and after this desperate act taKe their own lives. - -_ - * ■ The aged people are being drowned to prevent their death by the agonies' of starvation. Everywhere throughout the lengih arid breadth of. the afflicted district people are dying m the fields, on the roadßi and' m the streets, literally falling m their tracks a prey to the cruel and relentless monster. . ■■■■■ ' n _. BOYS SELL AT:Bs,'GIRLS AT 12s 6d r Orie of., the most pitiful phases is the uncontrollable grief of parents, who, .m sheer desperation, sell their children for a mere pittance, arid then, when they realise what they have done, like Rachel of old, refuse to be comforted, pleading with the purchaser for the restoration ol their children, offering themselves to undergo servitude that their dearlings might be set at liberty. Acutal ca,ses are knoWn fri which girls have been sold foi AITTLE SISfSn MdANING --..'.T FOR _00D. ■-'••■- Rev. Dr. T. F" M'Cfea. treasurer oi the Missionary Relief Committee, writes : "Leavea and coarse mill feed, ordinarily givenTouiy to -hogs, now sell for at much as good food usually costs. Trade is paralysed. People are homeless, listless, hopeless, / Furniture and . clothing— what Uttie. wassaved from the crueljood _ —are sacrificed, and the poverty-stricken > parerits-ear the hungry children crj. and moan inthe.niglit, >_Ue ..bey/themselves crouch helplessly'ori _ darrfp mat m some remote "corner,* ; . .<; :'_f\ { V^ .'■•__ 'V "I think of that day when- Christ the hungry five' thousand; arid I wbndei if Christ's people will follow inlHis foot steps, and have, . compassion on these hungry thousands m China, who must perish with cold and hunger unless we help them." '■-■■-. -.£->; >_._.-.„ SHALL THESE LITTEE£_iAMBS -■'*■■ ' _»ER_S_*-*T^'!^ Dr J. Sum«-_-TSfoh% .tbe;.we||iknown pastor -qf a .Melp_aißtChtfdWm New York City'i' and now travelling m China, writes as follows : -•-.-— - "Fifieen.-njilUon people are already m the grasp bf ;l amine.- Seven . million are now helpless. They are living on ja gruel made of beans ,arid sweqt potato leases. Even. this : will* soon be gone. ,T Already the people are drowning or .^riig. opium, to their aged relatives" and their children and Belling their little girls into nameless slavery/ "I Ibvelcliildren too T niuch to;see them exposed to hurigefJorshaifle; without cryifag loridly to their friends to come to thei. .lielp. It is not the; will of .our heavenly Father -that one oj^these little ones should perish." ".''__ ■___ HUMAI. FLESH ACTUALLY SOLD FOR FOOD. A correspondent, says :— : .., '_. -- "In .two districts^ £inphow andf Pai . chow? starving arid!" desperate people are eating their children, all, tiie. .plants; grasses, and roots having been exhausted. This correspondent adds that there have been many cases of cannibalism. Human flesh was actually being sold for food, although the ghoulish traffic was conducted secretly. THE WORST FAMINE IN FORTY YEARS., "The Viceroy of 'one'-' of ' the afflicted provinces states that, the famine is 'tell times worse than any known m tiie last 40 years." He tells of _ a. family i consisting of husband, wife and two children. The mother went foraging for food, and dur-' ing her absence -the father threw the children into the river and drowned them. On her return the mother asked for her childreh, and was told that the father could not bear to see them gradually 'starving to death, and as there was no chance of feeding them, he made away with them; The mother, greatly distressed, flung herself into the river, following her children. The head of the . family, m utter despair at the loss of his all, took his life also. The whole family thus perished." ALIV.E *IN HER D__M£ MOTHER'S - "ARMS. '-•■ '■ -/■^- i - A correspondent of the Shanghai Mercury, after visiting the famine districts, writes : "Your correspondent saw the famine here m '98, : and it. w.as awful. , He has often said since that he hoped he would never have to see r another, but all agree that it is going to be worse this' time than it was them • Manyjhere 'are sick from what they are eating, arid the/ color of the skin is already darkening, arid is quite noticeable." ■■■<■ ■"_ . THEY ARETtiOpKING TTfllS WAY: "A woman * was travelling with her baby girl a f year f bldl Weakened -by her long journey. and; lack ofvfdocLr she fell an easy prey.-toj the ; fever, and .died by the side of the' noad,/ clasping ".tightly her little child. '"For two" _ays the little living child was left m its dead mother's arms. Who ori that road>;.with hunger and fever driving. them on, could -stop to heed even the/<iry of a helpless baby * "For many'years these'gOdly meri and women have. 1 pointed • ' the : people ;'to rthe Saviour, and. countless thousands .have accepted Him, and have been baptized m the Faith. Indeed, the cause of Christ is making wondrous progress among the dense, population of China, and now that disaster has befallen them and death is threatening them, what wonder thai they are hoping ; for help from this country whence hail the missionaries, Who have told them again and again the , beautiful story of one Jesus,, who went itbdut doing good, who? fed the multitudes, arid whose followers m thip prosperous cbujntry are walking m the footsteps of: their M aster, daily, testing their lives by the standard He established; and ever dskin| themselves, What would Jesus do ? "

LET US HELP .THEM QUICKLY. "And shall they look m vain? Shall they be disappointed? Shall we lead them to believe that our religion is mere profession? Shall we shut up the bowels of our compassion and tell them that religion is one thing and charity quite auother? Or shall we open our hearts, our hands, onr purses, and our granaries, and m the name of oui* Master whom we serve, bid them share with us , the bounties of our heavenly Father's good%nes_? . ;:r:i\:/K\i:...::

HELP THEM. TQ % HELP OTHERS. "Missionaries, ribwjwprking m China have been so affeired by the scenes of heartrending^ suffering which ;they have been compelled to witness that, though theirs hearts are breaking, ; their- tears refuse to flow. .*•'■-..

"They themselves have given all they had and all they could borrow, and now they are daily inditing • pathetic communications, aud sending them broadcast, with the fervent prayer "that f36d would move the hearts of their more' fortunate brothers and. sisters m distant lands .to contribute largely m jthis hour of China's direst need „ and thus help them to help those^'ho are looking to them for salvation from impending death."