Tragic Pictures from Chihli—Relief Work in Many Centres—Why Does the Government Do Nothing?
Through the courtesy of the Pro: cure des Lazaristes we are enabled to publish the following account of the situation caused by thee famine in the vicariate of southwest Chibli. The report is dated from Chengtingfu, September 14, 1920:—The Catholic Mission of southwest Chihli comprises 32 sub-prefectures. The principal productions of the country are grain, millet, kaoliang and cotton. There are no industrial undertakings and as a consequence the inhabitants live on the result of their harvest.
Generally speaking the eastern part of the vicariate is rather fertile provided rain prevents the ground from becoming too dry but, on the other hand, owing to the proximity of the mountains it happens that the harvest is completely swept away during heavy rainfalls which cause the rivers to overflow and ravage everything around them. The western part is mountainous and the inhabitants there generally live from hand to mouth as they are not able to put anything aside in spite of their parsimony and their hard work, Finsr tag Troop.
The terrible inundation which occurred three years ago devasted the entire country and reduced to nothing all the harvest, thus causing misery without limit. The poor people still remember this calamity and the assistance which wis then given them by various benevolent committees. The two following years did not suffice to better the economical situation of the country. Last year the rain was insufficient and the harvest meagre. This year on account of the drought the harvest of corn has been almost nil because it has either not rained at all or very little since July, 1919. -Some of these poor _people have sown different, kinds of grain as often as three times but nevertheless they have obtained no harvest. The misery in which the peasants now live is, therefore, more cruel than. that experienced three years ago because it must be remembered that then the harvest in Shansi was abundant, the price of cereals reasonable and the transportation facilitated by _kindness on the part of the railway companies. On the other hand this year the harvest in Shansi is not abundant and the price of grain has doubled. As a consequence the inhabitants die from starvation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.