APPALLING FAMINE IN CHINA

Taranaki Daily News, 16 June 1930, Page 9

APPALLING FAMINE IN CHINA

' . TOLL OF HUNGER AND COLD. MANY MISSIONARIES KILLED. The terrible conditions existing in China due to the famine were graphically told at Cairns, Queensland, by Commander McKenzie, of the Salvation Army, recently. Commissioner McKenzie said some provinces in China had not had rain for four years and millions of people had perished. From October, 1929, to March, 1930, the Salvation Army had been feeding or granting sustenance to over 50,000 people daily, but even that merely touched the fringe. Last winter had been particularly severe and in one province many people had been frozen to death. In one town the Army during the winter had fed 11,000 people. Many of these had come in from surrounding country, but many who started fell by the way and were left to be devoured by wolves and dogs. During one night in Christmas week, said Commissioner McKenzie, 500 people were frozen to death, when the temperature was 37 degrees below zero, and 152 perished the same night in Pekin. Owing to tho terrible distress many people were turning bandits; thousands of people had been kidnapped during the past few years and held to ransom. Some of them, including missionaries, had been shot. Last year 22 missionaries at the Roman Catholic Mission had been killed by bandits and missionaries of other denominations had lost their lives. The position at the present was most difficult for all missionaries