Mukden, Sept. 24. The records of rainfall in Man~ predicted for all major products. This, was said to be due to Increased choukuo show that 70 to 80 per cent. of the annual precipitation (Dairen 342 In Newchwang 246, Mukden 302, Tisinking 254, Harbin 21.6. Hailar 12 and Manchouli 10 inches) generally comes as showers summer. Consequently the plains, particularly inthe regions of the} Liao and Sungari Rivers, often experience floods. The great central plain between the Great Hsingan Range and the Changpaishan district fs not only flat but very low, The northern and southern river systems divide Kungehouling, less than 250 metres above the sea level, This year there were unusually heavy showers in the spring and the! months of June and July were exceptionally dry—so much so that the Dairen authorities warned the public to economize in the use of water as their reservoirs held Tess than a month's supply and the time for the heaviest rains had already past, To recall the remark of Clemens,, that genial humourist of the previous generation, when replying to the toast of "The Oldest' Inhabitant."—per-Sonal quarrels were avoided and an~ lent arguments forgotten when the smiling Samuel solemnly nominated "The weather." Tu his remarks his choice for the oldest inhabitant, he made a statement which applies with at least equal force to. many other things besides the weather, It was that people were always talling, about It, but nobody ever did anything, acreage and favourable weather. A second estimate was promised for early in October, Long before this survey was started the unusual rain~ fall had seriously damaged the stand-Ing crops in Antung, Fengtien and Chinchow Provinces.
Large Scale Disasters ordinary year, of which, strange to say, Manchoukuo seems 10 have very few, such large scale disasters would have occupied a con siderable portion of the newspapers. This year was estimated to have 101 er cent, of the crops of an average jyear—last year of course, was below average. Curiously though the com~ Paratively light rainfall in July, which month meteorological statistics Indicate has the heaviest rainfall of the year, had brought gloomy forebodings of drought in the south, the heavy showers early in the summer had given the crops on unusually favourable start, "Than the belated showers came with a rush. A message from Antung reported 180" killed or injured. A policeman from an outlying district brought "word of a landslide after which 50 dead and many more missing were recorded." From another centre came the news that over 400 houses were completely destroyed, 100 inhabitants were dead and several hundreds severely injured. Many bridges were damaged or destroyed. Rescue parties and repair gangs worked over-time, Mukden's Dyke Scheme Mukden which has seen in the past loss of life by flood within the city limits has done something by drawing up plans for a substantial dyke, to extend from the railway bridge over the Hunho, just south of the city, to Tungling (Eastern Tombs). Mukden already had a small dyke which protected the Japanese Con cession and the Settlement designated for forelgm residence, The new construction, if and when completed, will include several. suburbs "which are being incorporated into. the Frequent tabulations of population fare published. For some time readers were confused by Mgures which falled to specify whether they included. the Japanese Concessions or not, The remarkable growth of the principal cities, "according to the Agures published, has in largo measure been ne to the extension of municipal Voundaries rather than to" natural Increase of population. This parti ularly applies to this city and Dairen, For a time Mukden's claim to be the largest city in Manchukuo was menaced by the reports {rom Harbin, but the resourceful City Fathers annexed a few villages, putting the city well in the tead.
The inclusion of Dairen in Munchoukuo statistics may astonish those who recall that the Japanese Empire made a vast sacrifice of blood and treasure to wrest that port from the clutches of the Russian Bear, but they must have failed to rasp the true signifeance of the indivisibility the Japanese and Manchouleuoan Empires. Indivisibility obviously presupposes unity, and when that is realized all grounds for astonishment disappear,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.