200.000 Chihli People in Need of Relief: Impossibility of Planting Winter Crops Frox Ove Ows Connesroxurt, Peking, Oct. 16, That famine conditions are already beginning to prevail in the regions flooded by the summer rains) is indicated by two reports recontly received by the China International Famine Relief ~Commission. Both of these reports cover areas in the Chihli district.
The first report, which was submitted by the Rev. W. T. Hoburt, of the Methodist Mission, covers the region to the north and south of Peking.
Dr. Hobart reports that the two Iusiens in this district which have suffered the most are Ku-an and
images have been flooded and Five hundred and seven-estimated that 200,000 ppeople will need relief." Already four-fifths of the population ure without food and are eating chaff. The other fifth of the populati food on hand to last possibly three months.
Hardly any land in these hsiens can be planted with winter wheat and some will not be available for spring planting as the water still lies eight feot deep over the fields. Pahsion can be reached only. by boat even now, and it is possible to go from' there direct to Tientsin by boat over the. flooded areas.
The suffering here will be intense and loss. of-life great.un-
OF under Hunanese General: lonia on Kanchow by three separate routes, with what appear to be about four brigades, under 'T'an Yen-kai, (or his lieutenant) Yang Hsi-min, Min-yang, and Chu P'ei-debs "Men have been sent from here to Wan-nan to close in with Fan, and the city is waiting to see how they: get fon. If they succeed that will ease the situation, but if they lose it is said that there will be an exodus of Northerners by the route named, They say that no help ix expeded from Nanchang, as Ts'ai Chuen-\iisin and the loca Fang Siting, are unfriendly.
The New "General"
Whether this is true or not. ix difficult to say. How panicky the Northerners "are may be. shown from the fact that they sent men four days ago down to fight Fan, called them back again, and finally sent them down again, South= erners, and the brigands with them are moving rapidly, and know the small roads, besides which the people are with them and the Northerners find it difficult to keep trace of them. To add to this there are many Southern soldiers in this city disguised, and they ave spreading panic. Money and vations for the Northerners are going short, although a month ago $30,000. notes were sent here from the capital. Whether it is all eeurate about the South beings on the marelt here or not will not be known for 'a few days, but that some serious movement is afoot ly certain, and at the nneral hax seized the is equally certain, may he followed by General Exodus, The Nankang: niagistrate haw fled in here. No movement is reported. on the Lungnan-Sinfong route, They say the South ix not coming that way. The trick ings Oct. 17. fron ry circles, Gen, Tsai According to information derived
Cheng-hsun, "Tuli of ' Kiangsi, ro-ports that southern troops under the command of Gen, Fan Chung-sao have invaded southern horiter of the province at Sui Gen, Fong Peng: Suaichuan with a division to sup. preys the rebels. Gen. Tsai requests the Government to give instruee tions for the Kinngst troops in riga to return to Kiungsi—Reuter's Pacific Service, lows adequate relief is brought to there people.
The second report was revived from Mr. John. Pickford, of the Presbyterian Mission at Shunteh: fa, and covers conditions in five sions in the Shuntehfa region, Jen Hsien, Chu Lu, Kuang Tsung, ing Hsiang and Ghi Chai.
Omitting Kuang Twong, whose nat refuses to ask the Government help on the ground that. people must be actually starving id freezing to death before such aid is granted and such conditions do not now prevail in his Asien, there are about 400 villages, or half the total number in. this) res gion which will neod help. The official reports, which so fur as it is possible to check them seem to.
accurate, list from one to two-thirds of the families in those villages as famine sufferers, oF total of between 40,000 and 50,000 people forthe district who will need Already many of the men have the villages in search of work and as conditions become more acute, many more of the people will leave. their homes in search food.
In places the prospects of a wits ter wheat crop are good, but in large areas the fields are still mud fats or covered with water" and cannot be planted this autumn, Some relief measures are being taken locally, money has been distributed and there is talk of several construction projects undertaken as relief work, but the measures proposed are entirely inadequate to meet the situation, and this region, too will need outside relief on a lange scale if untold suffering and misery during the coming winter is to be avoided:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.