The drought is becoming increasingly ominous; June has without rain, we are nearly one third through July, and still no rain, The wheat is a failure, the maize is almost dried up. The autumn crops, millet and sorghum are not being sown, and we are now on the borders of famine. The disastrous seasons of the last two years, and the increased taxation for indemnities makes the case of the peasant farmers a very hard one, and in a few weeks there will in any case be great distress.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.