The following letter is published have instead of in the usual correspondence columns, is order by means of the most prominent display te bring it forcibly to the notice of all readers.
To the Editor of the "Norta-Cuixa Dairy News."
Sir,—It is increasingly evident that the famine work we, in conjunction with other Committees of standing in China, are seeking to do is not receiving the fullest support the need warrants. I do not require to tell your readers of the dire distress prevailing over a large area, distress so bad that the people—millions of them—are now reduced to food made of a dough composed of leaves, bark of trees, roots of weeds, and grass mixed with what looks like sand or earth. We have samples of this in the famine office 22 The Bund for inspection any time. I desire to bring to the notice of the general public that our Committee is working in the closest possible touch with the Tientsin International Society of Famine Relief and with other reliable Committees throughout China, and our policy is to distribute relief only through missionaries, or other foreigners, who are responsible for all who assist them in the work of distribution. As Chairman of our Distribution Committee I know that all uionies entrusted to us will be sent out only to the most reliable people. estimate that the most we can expect from the charitable public
world over will not provide more woofs Chinese and foreign) the than three copper cents a day per sufferer for one month; and we have another siz months of this famine still before us, The conditions are bad enough now, but what will they be like a month hence when the northern winter We are now giving immediate relief to the starving people in sections of the large famine area, but the only hope of adequately meeting the great need and avoiding an enormous death-roll is a largo foreign loan; and it requires to be pointed out that this is a matter requiring the urgent attention of all with business and other interests in China, and while this needs no further demonstration, it does require to be emphasized that immediate action along this line is necessary. The Consortium must come to the rescue, and that speedily too. We have a Committee here and in Tientsin, with the confidence of both Chinese and foreign businessmen, able and ready to undertake the handling of this Toan.
I crave your indulgence for one short word more. In our work of famine distribution we are Snding|* it not too easy to get our supplies of grain from Manchuria and Hankow and other parts owing to the! unnecessary holding up of rolling stock by military Tuchuns.—This/ we feel could be rectified by a strong word in the right quarter)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.