Secondly, the economic losses due to famines' are enormous. 'The. total Jost in agricultural properties and crops during the 1081 flood alone amounted to. $2,000,000,000, which would have been suifeient' to take care of the entire budget of the National Government of China for at least two years, The total quantity of foodstuits destroyed by the 1031 flood would have been enough to feed the entire population of Shanghai for nearly seven years, In 1034 we hada severe and extensive drought in China, It was estimated that the total economic ess that year, (about, $1,000,000,000) would have been sufficient to build 500 good-sized cotton mills, capable of employing 1,000,000 workers oF to construct 10,000 miles of good motor Fonds, The total loss due to floods and drought during the last fifteen years would be enough to pay off all of China's domestic and foreign debis, and are, greater than all the Indemnities "China has Incurred through foreign wars during the last 100 years. Much of this economic energy, if not all, could and would have been available for productive enterprises and reconstruction work in China.
Thirdly, the social and moral effects are no less disastrous, "Due fo repeated famines, thousands of people in the Interior of China have lost self-confidence. and as they have no other means of livelihood they became bandits. Ethical *as well as economic standards have been lowered: poverty and disease have increased. The morale of the nation has been greatly effected, and het very economic recovery rendered more dimeult.
What, then, can and should done to combat these natural catastrophes, so that larger portions of the Tesources may be country's ing of factories, railways and school 'There are, of course, a variety of answers 10 this question, "but one which "hes proved effective is the continuous pushing of famine prevention work on a large and. well-organized scale. India, for example, was also a Jund of' misery, but through the consistent development The Commission has accomplished. of flood control, irrigation projects and better communication facilities she does not suffer so much now from such calamities. China can do the same. Relief alone can never wipe out the causes of her recurring famines.
Famine Relief Commission Formed After the North China famine of 1020, we found that" emergencies could not be met adequately by imprompt organizations hastily scram-led together and that a centralized, national and permanent institution was needed to tackle the problem of famines in a fundamental. way. We further discovered that although Wwe nad spent $17,000,000 during the yenr 1920-21, and kept about 7,000,- 000° people ' from starvation,—we Achieved litre of permanent value.
'One exception, "however, should be made in. this' respect. With the $1,000,000 gold denated by the American Red Cross, Dr. J. E. Baker and few others carried out a demonstration in selentife "relief. They employed tens of thousands of ref-lugees (at one time as many 37,000 people), and started to bulld the first motor roads in China." At the end of their relie¢ operations, they had not only finished 850 miles of motor roads (which gave practical encouragement to the good roads movement in China), but also had proved the value of labour relief.
Partly because of this successful experiment and partly due to the desire on the part of various Sino-foreign famine relict bodies to have centralized and permanent relief machinery, the China International Famine Relleg "Commission was founded in the autumn of 1921. The Commission, an internationally-constituted organization, was formed for 8 two-fold task: 1. To administer Fellef measures in times of famine due to natural causes, and 2." To promote and came out projects for the prevention of future calamities.
It is composed of twelve provincial committees and one Inter-provincial committee. It has its headquarters in Peiping, with branch offices in Nanking and Sangha. The Head Omce is divided into tve departments: 1. general affairs, 2. accounting, 3. engineering, 4, rural improvement and income production; and it carries on work the whole year round, famines or no famine, Much Accomplished Besides the handling of relief work in, times of emergency, the Commission has built 2028 mites new roads ind repaired 1,448 miles of old roads since Ils formation fifteen years ago. These roads not only gave productive employment to hundreds of thousands of famine Tefugees, but also made it possible to transport food supplies to famine aitleken areas quickly and ceonomieally.
'The Commission has, moreover, Gnanced the digging of 5,727 wells which have greatly increased' the productivity of the areas benefitted; completed 904 miles of dykes in six provinces and 290 miles. of canals in four provinces. Together with river diversion work which cost about. $1,058,000, a total of $12,355,000 has already been spent by the Commission on engineering and preven-five projects. "It has also been large-responsible for converting the historic Sian-Lanchow highway into 2 motor road, thereby reducing the journey between these two strategic Northwestern cities from eighteen to four days.
On this road, 480 miles long, the Commission spent $587,000, approximately three-fifths" of which was
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.