PEASANTS FLEE FROM FLOODS

Southland Times, Issue 23537, 17 June 1938, Page 7

PEASANTS FLEE FROM FLOODS

YELLOW RIVER BURSTS BANKS JAPANESE ADMIT LOSS OF LIFE IN SHANTUNG (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received June 16, 11.40 p.m.) SHANGHAI, June 15. The Yellow river burst its banks at the intersection of the Grand Canal, 100 miles east of the existing gaps. The water is rushing in a south-easterly direction, partly submerging the province of Shantung, which the Japanese control.

A flood five miles wide separates the Chinese and Japanese between Kaifeng and Chengchow, over-running the Lunghai railway. The peasants are in a desperate plight and are fleeing en masse.

The floods have reached Yenling, 50 miles from the breaks, inundating 900 square miles in which there are 2000 villages. The Japanese admit that lives have been lost.

A later message says that the rain is unabated. The Yellow river flood has reached 70 miles due south of Kaifeng

and is sweeping towards Chowkiakow, 40 miles west, in the Honan province. Combined with the frantic efforts of Japanese soldiers, the Chinese farmers failed to arrest the breaches, and though in Shantung the inundation seems to be under control both Chinese and Japanese are building dykes along the entire length of the Lunghai railway as safety zones. Japanese units swept up the Yangtze river 45 miles from Nanking, says a message from Tokyo. The fall of Wangkaing is expected. Japanese naval aeroplanes, flying 1250 miles, bombed Kweilin, on the motor highway to French Indo-China. . The Chinese claim that aeroplanes sank two Japanese war vessels ana damaged two in the vicinity of Nanking. The Commander-in-Chief (Marshal Chiang Kai-shek) has established a military government in Hupeh, controlled by a noted strategist, General Chen Cheng. Canton suffered two air raids this morning, the main objectives being the railways. Ten persons were killed. British gun-boats at Wuhu and Kiukiang have been ordered to remain there in spite of a Japanese request that foreign shipping should withdraw from the stretch of 200 miles of the Yangtze between Wuhu and Pukow. The British view is that the presence of gunboats on the river is even more necessary to protect British lives and property now that the Japanese to Hankow has begun. It is understood that Rear-Admiral H. E. Yarnell, the United States com-mander-in-Chief, has also rejected the Japanese request. ,

The Yellow river, or Hwang-ho, is one of the chief rivers of'China. It rises near the source of the Yangtze Kiang in Tibet, and, flowing north-east traverses northwestern China and Mongolia. It then reenters China and flows south for 400 miles to Puchow. forming the boundary between the provinces of Shensi and Shansi. The river then flows east for 300 miles to Kaifeng, the present scene of hostilities in North China, and makes a sharp bend to the north-east, pursuing its 400-mile course to the sea through Shantung province into the Gulf of Pechihli. Before 1852, when a disastrous flood diverted its course, the Hwang-ho used to flow eastwards from Kaifeng, entering the sea near Haichow. The total length of the river is 2500 miles, and because of its destructive floods it is known as “China’s Sorrow.” CANTON CASUALTIES AT LEAST 3500 NO JAPANESE REPLY TO BRITISH PROTEST (British Official Wireless) (Received June 16, 6.30 p.m.) RUGBY, June 15. Questioned in the House of Commons on the effects of the air attacks on* Canton, the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Mr R. A. Butler) said that official estimates of the casualties were at present incomplete, but reports indicated that between 3500 and 4000 persons were killed and wounded between May 28 and June 10. The British Government had protested to Japan against the indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas and thickly populated centres. Asked if a reply had been received to this protest, Mr Butler said certain preliminary observations had been made to the British Ambassador to Tokyo (Sir Robert Clive) by the Japanese Foreign Minister (General Kazushige Ugaki), who had promised to send a considered reply.