The belated rainy season came with a rush. Bridges were washed away and embankments melted into the muddy torrents. Railway schedules, already under considerable strain by reason of the westward flow of troops, were abandoned. In places telephone communication was interrupted rendering the operation on temporary schedule very difficult, Landslides blocked the line from here to Antung and soon tales of villages destroyed, houses washed away and inhabitants drowned began to pour ip. Gallant rescue efforts by police apd other organizations, are too apt to' go unrecorded, when more spectacular. if less praiseworthy, efforts to take life on a large scale, rather than the saving of a few hundreds of flood victims, crowd the headlines. Aeroplane surveys have disclosed that large areas of crops have been inundated. The first estimate of the lóss in the southern part of this province exceeded Y.10,000,000.
The first estimate of staple agricultural products was made up to July 1. Omitting Jehol Province and the four Hsingan provinces, the harvest was estimated at approximately 17,870,000 tons, with an increase of 9 per cent. over the figures of last year. Of this total soya beans were expected to provide about 4% million tons, kaoliang about 86,000 tons more than that, millet over 3% millions, maize over 2%, wheat over a million tons, paddy rice over half a million, and upland rice over 140,000 tons.
Except for a decrease in perilla and hemp-seed an increase in crops is predicted for all major products, This From Changchun came word that relief parties were being despaíched in an effort to curb the spread of epidemics. A report stated that over 250 cases of dysentery had appeared in Chinchow as a result of the floods. Subscriptions for a relief fund were received, though these so far, were small compared to the amounts collected for the campaigns in China.
The importance of the annual crop is frequently lost sight of as more exciting items fill the press. Averaging about 60 per cent. of the world's production of this useful crop, soya beans account for over half of Manchoukuo's export trade, In this country where nearly nine out of every ten of the population are of the farming class, over 40 kinds of crops are raised, but five staples—beans, millet, kaoliang maize and wheat—make up three-quarters of the total.
About 15 per cent. of the total area of the country or say 44 per cent, of the estimated cultivatable land was worked last year, The crop estimate which forecast a slight increase over the amounts harvested last year, still falls far short of the totals for 1931. Disastrous floods in 1933 and 1934, wide-spread—banditry—following the overthrow of the Northeastern Government, drop in the price of agricultural products with the rise in the price of silver, rise in wages and lack of farm labour due to disturbances in the country and to the great demand for labour in extensive railway building and other construction al activities, and financing difficulties had all contributed to the reduction of crops since 1931, Credit for Farmers The farmer needs credit for his seed, and then for his living until his new crops are marketed. The Government has devoted much thought to the rural credit problem and gradual improvement is being effected, but loans at the beginning of the year through the rural credit association: in the country would allow, if dis tributed over the farming population, about 30 cents a head. The value of agricultural products exported, which amounts to roughly one half of the total crop, runs from 30 to 50 yuan for a farming family, so the credit associations would seem to be on very safe ground in increasing their loans.
Recently several score of bandits held up a bus which left Fushun for Mukden. The buses make twelve trips each way every day on that run, while a large number of trucks pass over this highway end many taxis and private cars are met. The buses make the 35-mile run in just 100 minutes stopping five times on the way. This first bus had just left the old station, a stop midway between the termini, when the bandits appeared. Among the five passengers, Japanese and Chinese, the station master from Chiuchan aged 60, and two others were shot.
The chauffeur, though seriously wounded, pluckily "stepped on the gas," and, without stopping, in about ten minutes reached the station just outside the small east outer gate of Mukden where he reported to the police. Whatever the moving spirit behind these or other bandits, their fellow Chinese are the principal suf-forers at their hands, The sad fact remains that banditry persists. Some of the outlaws have communist ten-doneies particularly in districts convenient to the Soviet border, and Heroic Efforts to Cope with Demands of the Wounded Nanking, Oct. 14.
Pitiful scenes can be witnessed in field hospitals here where a small handful of doctors and nurses are "working heroically to attend wounded officers and men. A far larger Staff is needed to give the injured the proper attention.
At the temporary hospital at Central University there are four doctors and 24 nurses attending 750 wounded, and a further 200 are expected tomorrow Dr. Ettinger, who returned to China from Vienna only four weeks ago. is supervising the work and yesterday performed 26 operations himself. He remained up all night and slept only 1% hours this morning, after which he again resumed work, Two hundred wounded soldiers, who arrived last night, were' compelled to look after themselves, Their condition. however, indicated that there was an adequate staff behind the front lines to offer first aid treatment.
Every doctor and nurse in the capital is working overtime and the medical authorities are appealing for volunteers.—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.