The Committee elected ing of the residents of Ti July last, to consider what assistance could be rendered by the foreign community to the sufferers by the inundation wich ind suddenly covered the whole plain of the province of Chibli have, after earnest deliberation, decided to make this appeal for assistance to carry out measures of relief for which their local resources are wholly inadequate.
'The time that has elapsed since the descent of this calamity has ben vecupied in collecting data on whichyelief work could be based with " prospect of satisfactory results, and as the distress was more prospective' than present, the circumstances of the case furtunately admitted of considerable deliberation, Now, however, the approach of the winter season, when' the suffering of the people will be intense, precludes farther delay, and calls for a' great effort to be made, with such information as is now available.
There are on this committee gentlemen who shared actively in the distribution of the Shanghai and Mansion House fund in 1888, some who played a promment part in the relief of the great famine in Shansi in 1878, and several who gained their experience in work of this ud during the Tientsin fouds of 1871. The ce-operation of such veterans in the administration of public charity with younger men moved with no less compassion for the sufferers may serve to assure contributors from a distance that no care will be wanting to turn their generosity to the most practical account.
The inundation, as is no doubt well-known to all, was caused by an unusually heavy rain-fall in the mountains during July, and the insufficiency of the river system of the province to carry off the excess. The waters spread over the plain with unexampled suddenness; and of the drainage basin of the Peiho, estimated at 60,000 square miles, one-tenth part was completely submerged. The population
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.