July 29.
Unbounded sympathy wil! be felt for those unfortunate dwellers on the banks of the Yangtze who have found th selves the victims of the present floods.
Practically at our own doorstep such a disaster as has happened to Nanking where a thousand houses have been swept away and fifty Inhabitants affected, thousand inevitably cor home with greater force than calamities of larger moment elsewhere, The control. a river of the magnitude of the Yangtze is certainly beyond the hope or scope of a government fighting for existence as is that of Nanking.
Further when the havoc wrought by the breaking of the levees on the Mississippi within the last few years is brought to mind, it is realized that after all that conservancy ence has accomplish finite lack of certainty in' the efforts of man, with precedent and scientific imagination hind them, still exists.
In 1921 and 1922 a body of conservancy engineers of international repute were in China principally with the view of deliberating on the work which had been done for the port of Shanghai and how far it could be extended in the future. In pa Bhat the conservancy we 1g, it may just be recalled which had already been carried out and the projects of the local Conservancy Board solved the full approval of this body. To return to the Yangtze, however, it may be recalled certain bers of the commission were asked to make some investigation as regards the conservancy of the river, among them being Sir Frederick (then Mr.) Palmer, an engineer outstanding even in a group of international experts such as that mentiones He had already created a great reputation for himself in India before fi enhanced this by ho went to London where
ing the depth of water in in of the important docks In the first pi was with the 4 navigation, on the training of the Langshan Crossing and so forth, but naturally he went into the subject as a whole. The view wai finally expressed that successful conservancy work could be dono on the Yangtze, but that the atate of China's finances the cost would be prohi tive, This view is readily understood when ft is realized that, roughly speaking, the river winds throu th a valley about a hundred miles wide, and that when the melted Tibetan snows are reinforced by an excess of rain in China proper, there are practically no limits' to which the waters can spre the vicinity of Kiukiang, for instance, when the overflow from the river joins up with the adjacent lakes in times of floot practically an inland sea i formed. On such. occasions as these, steamers lose their way, sail over rice fields, sometimes successfully, but sometimes being left high and dry. to the credit of the Chinese po that under conditions such these he may be seen waist-deep in water attempting the salvage of his harvest, but when his dwelling, even if it be but a mud hut, is swept awa his plight must be indescribable.
What may be hoped for now cessation of the rains which have created so much havoc, in which case there will be an opportunity for the industry of the country people to repair a certain proportion of the ravages which these floods have made.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.