24th Nov.
one of Charles Keen's pictures an irascible old gentleman is shown crumpling his newspaper and writhing in excess of irritation; he has just read the "Forecast of Weather for to-day:—The weather to-day will be changeable." "As if," says the exasperated old man, with many exple tives, "as if every foo! didn't know that!". The changeableness of the weather in England is not a bit -more certain than the coming of famine in China, and therefore though we have no particular district in view we can always speak with confidence of the coming famine; the words willie continually made true in one district or another, in more or less intensity, a little earlier or a little later.
The misery of a country which is always on the verge of famine is little realised or even considered by those who live in Western lands, where famine is, like plague, a horrid name and little more. We have already, heard that in some districts the, price of breadstuffs has been 33 per' cent above the normal for some time, with no prospect of 'a fall before the spring crops are gathered, and with every chance of further:: rise-unless'' the tain -for those crops comes at once. Now, in England, even if the 3d. loaf had to be sold for 6 months at 4d.—which would be regarded as a great calamity—yet how light a trouble it would be in comparison. For the extra penny would be saved—with sorrow no doubt—off tobacco, off beer, off clothes, off tea. But in China the suffering is of a very different kind where the peasant has no place to economise but in the bread itself. He would willingly wear his warmest clothes all day to save a fire, and use them too as his only covering by night; but that is what he always does, so he cannot economise in fuel. His butcher's bill is twopennyworth of pork for the New Year's festivities, and there is no help there. His tobacco, his one luxury, only comes to some 2s. per annum; he cannot wear poorer clothes, nor move into a cheaper hovel; he must either use a poorer quality of grain, or if this is impossible he must add chaff; or if he is accustomed to grinding chaff with his corn to make it further, he must henceforth increase the proportion of chaff. This ig the case of tens of thousands of people; and it is a frequent state of things, this year here, next year there; but it is not called famine unless it affects more people than usual or lasts a longer time than usual. The results are seen—or would be seen if there were anyone to look—in the weakening of the peasant's frame, in the inferiority of his work, in the eas: giving-in of the unfit to the attad of disease, in the bad nourishment of the young and great mortality among children. Sometimes when things get worse than usual in any district the missionaries take the matter up, write to the papers, stir up outside sympathy, distribute the money they receive as far as it will go, save a certain proportion from immediate starvation, and then things go on just as they were before.
Our object in this article is to point out the criminal negligence of the Government in these matters. British rule in India may have a thousand defects, but still there isa Government which is both well intentioned and active. When the recent lack of rain: gave fear of famine there, all the world knew of it through Reuter; the Government was like a doctor with his hand on the patient's pulse, waiting to see how the thing would go, and ready and skill. He might possibly give to act to the best of his knowledge
the wrong medicine, but at least he was there and watchful, and would not lose the right moment. In China the Government does what' every preceding dynasty has done for thousands of years with the dreariest monotony; it issues its proclamations telling the people to be good children and it lets the people starve. We do not-deny: that: there are often good men among the local officials who do the best they know how, but their knowledge of economics is often as childish as that of the Irish crowd, who, in their intense hatred of the wealthy Bank, collected its banknotes and made a derisive and triumphant bonfire of them before the Bank windows. Small riots have been already reported from several districts where one county was trying to buy corn in neighbouring county. For each district to hold fast to its own— there is seldom any surplus—and let the next district suffer and starve as best it can, this seems all they can do at present.
To understand both the wickedness and blind foolishness of this it must be called to mind that China has had a long experience not only of chronic poverty among the masses but also of disastrous famines. No people has suffered more in this way, and as during the whole time the; have occupied the same ground wit! the same local conditions, no people ought to be more prepared to meet, or more skilled to resist, this frequent enemy. Without going back to the mythical period, when with phoenixes and dragons we also read of the distress of the common people, it is only 20 years since such a famine devastated North China as history perhaps gives no parallel to, the lowest. estimate of lives lost being 9 millions. So appalling a disaster should have had some effect at least on the Chinese Government; seeing it took place under a responsible established government and that the deaths by starvation amounted to 7 per thousand of the whole world's pulation, it might even have justified. the civilised world in taking measures that it should not occur again—at least if Armenian atrocities and Cuban situations justify interference; it is true those nine millions dead had never bought our cottons, and our markets were but little affected. There can be no other opinion, however, than that the Government should have taken steps at once to guard against a repetition of such a disaster. It was pointed out to them at the time' that irrigation and afforestation were needed, and further, that roads must be made to facilitate the carriage of grain, if such need for it should arise again. Itis probable that nothing has been done; it is certain that nothing has been done at all adequate to the requirements of the case. That famine began in Shantung years ago: we know that to-day ifa Single mile of railway has been laid to open up that province it is the work of an alien. Power which is exercising a victor's rights.
This is one aspect of the question which is seldom regarded but is of vital importance. We generally think of the railways as opening up new markets for our goods. It may seem
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.