A typical letter describing the famine conditions in the centre and west of Hunan is that recently re. ceived by the central famine relief committee from Yungsui. Szechuan soldiers have recently flooded the district, loaving it destitute, These invaders have combed the country of food and clothing. Winter is ahead, and promises misery unsurpassed. In much of this region not only war there not a grain of vice grown during the summer, but even the rice straw was s0 poor in quality as to be almost worthless. The crops vary in different parts of the area from zero to 70 per cent. of normal. Unfortunately the means for equalizing -are very defective, With soldier ate numbers, it is difficult to see how enough' food can be secured, ven with aid from outside, for the residents. Yungsui itself, the writer declares, "is a dead city." The well-to-do have moved away and are only beginning to filter back as the Szechuan soldiers have been repulsed, Business is wholly at a! mers are dazed and in them any energy to resume their accustomed
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.