THE FAMINE IN CHINA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1915, 11 July 1889, Page 4

THE FAMINE IN CHINA.

In the North China Herald is published a translation ©f a letter from the Vicar Apostolic of Manchuria, to M. Wagner, Consul-General for France at Shanghai, in which the writer (Bishop Raquit) gives some distressing particulars of the famine. The letter is as follows:—“lam writing you from Payensousbu, in the province of Tsi-tsi-har, and I have just visited the province of Ghirin. Everywhere in the provinces of Manchuria, in the midst of a population of about 15,000,000, I have encountered the most horrible misery. Everywhere the crops have failed, and especially here, in the extreme north, that which the floods have spared has been ruined by the premature frosts. The unfortunate inhabitants are reduced to the last extremity; there are very few "who can procure millet; the greater number are reduced to feeding on bran, roots, and rubbish of all kinds. Many pf the poor creatures at the end of their resources kill themselves in their-despair. Here, it is the father of the family who throws his childreii into a well, and then follows them himself" there, entire families -—father, mother, and children—-hang themselves to escape the tortures of hunger. In a word, it is misery and suffering in the most heartrending forms. Scattered everywhere throughout this vast territory, larger than France, my 26 missionaries, I can honestly say, are spending themselves in purse and person, to com© to the assistance of the unfortunates, be they Christians or pagans, who, in constantly increasing numbers, come to implore seme aid just to keep them alive, as they say. It is impossible to remain unmoved in the face of such sufferings, and so we are devoting everything to the relief of the starving. Daily, and from all sides, come the cries of distress, begging me to have pity on these unfortunates. How I wish, sir, that L were rich! But, alas! the mission has exhausted its last resources. Ought we to see perishing of hunger these thousands and thousands of unfortunates, whose only hope is in the charity of the public ? Pardon me if, while expressing to you our most lively gratitude to the generous contributors, I take the liberty of Adding our hope that their ’charity will again Assist in saving some of these poor creatures from a horrible death.”