A brief account of the work carried out by the Famine Relief Committee in the leased Territory of Weihaiwei may prove of interest to those who have subscribed generously to the Weihaiwei Famine Relief Fund, the object of which has been to provide food for the many thousands'.of Chinese who were in danger of actual starvation owing to the almost entire failure of last year's crops.
Immediately the true state of affairs became known, a General Committee, consisting of British and Chinese residents, was appointed to assist the Government in raising funds for the purchase of grain and to arrange for its distribution. 193,499 catties of kaoliang were at once purchased from local stocks: scores of carts were hi and the grain was transported to distributing depots established at six different points in the Territory.
Coincident with the execution of the necessary investigations no time was lost in purchasing the grain required to meet the imme-te demand, and the purchasing; sub-committee made excellent arrangements for the purchase and shipment of grain from Tairen Five shipments in all have been received Sen the latter port, re presenting 2,824,607 attics' of grain. The Shui Wu Ch'n, on the representations of His Maj Minister at Peking, has very sider ately sanctioned the re of export duty on all gra ped from Tairen to Weihaiwei for famine relief purposes. Needless to say, the action of the Shui Wu Ch'u is very highly appreciated by the Famine Relief Committe free distribution of gr: the destitute has been carried out fortnightly and was continued till the end of June. The fortnightly tation for an adult was 19 catties and for_a child 9} catties of kno liang. Up to May 97 last, grain amounting. to 689,472 catties had been distributed to 8.613 persons. and by the end of June 1.04: been distributed, catties, or 620} tons, would have
The issue of grain on loan to small landowners has been com pleted: 28,810 persons, inhabiting 275 villages have been_ relieved: 1,963,908 catties of grain, about 1,169 tons, have been issued: and the landowners have expressed themselves as very grateful for the relief given to them and. their families and for the-cheap rate at Which the grain has been issued and the loans made.
The members of the Famine Relief Committee are very grateful for the generous response to their appeal for assistance, the amount subscribed by the public up to date being $49.479.76 which was more than sufficient to cover the cost of relieving the destitute to the end of June, though the total cost of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.