The Procure des Lazaristes here have received a letter from Father Montine, at Paotingful, showing the conditions in the vicariate there.
The letter says, in part:—Generally speaking one may say that with the exception of Koangtebong and Ansuhsien the whole of the vicariate is terribly stricken: in the poor places people already suffer from real famine and in the better situated places it is only a question of days. and we are only now in the 7th Moon! If Providence does not give us abundant rains before the end of the month the peasants will not be able to. sow the grain for next year's harvest and in that case it will be endless misery.
The extent of the calamity makes it more difficult to organize assistance because it is necessary at the same time to come to the assistance of everyone.
If only one could prevail upon the civil and miliary authorities to take the situation in hand and, for instance, to execute great works of public utility such as public roads, canals, ete., how different the situation would be!
These last few years so much has been said and written here in Paoting-fu about projects of this kind. Where one would thus have been able to help, an armed force will now be necessary. Considering the actual cost of grain the minimum expense to keep a person by only giving him what is absolutely necessary to keep him alive but not sufficient to work on, that is by giving him "chow" twice a day, will cost 13 or 14 cents per day."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.