The following letter has been received from Messrs Shorrock and Duncan of the English Baptist Mission, Shangyuen Lisle 100 li from Singan Fu, the expitalof Shensi, under date April 27th The devastating floods of 1888-9 that drove the emigrants from Shantung are likely to be followed by famine here. Many families are now gathering weeds and "clover—cattle's food—for their only meal. The fields that ought now to be waving with the ripening grain are, in many cases, barren and scorched by the continuing drought. The irrigable fields have mostly been retained by the aboriginal population; the immigrants therefore cultivate land wholly dependent upon seasonable rain. Penniless, they cannot purchase food, the price of which is abnormally high and rising every week, and now their crops have failed, what can they do? Many of the Shantung immigrants have stripped their houses of every beam and their bodies of almost every garment to be sold for bread and' set out on the dismal prospect of begging their way back to their ancestral homes; others, hopeless, resign themselves in despair to whatever fate may bring. Tt has been impossible to withhold what help we could give. We have also hastened the building of a house in order to afford temporary relief toa few, but what are they among so many? However. difficult the task of organising and distributing relief may be, it may yet become inevitable—forced upon us by the clamant distress of those perishing. Rain now would bring considerable relief, but should it not full soon we fear the worst and may feel compelled to telegraph for help. Some of the natives have sent their furniture, food, and flocks into the walled cities for safety from the desperation of starving men, and anxiously await the developmentofevents. Anotherthingwhich increases their alarm is the report of a rising of Mohammedans. In addition to all th a number of people, believing the rain being prevented by the recently erected telegraph poles, have, under the leadership of a military mandarin, cut down the lines to the east and west of Singan Fu. Thus dire distress, actual drought, threatening famine, rumours of rebellion and robberies, and the destruction of telegraph lines, all contribute to unsettle the minds of the people and disturb the peace of the province. At present, owing to residing amongst Christian immigrants and in the country, We prosecute our work in safety,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.