$300,000 Needed to Strengthen Hanyang System Hankow, May 17.
The waters of the Yangtsze River at Hankow continue to rise, and at Wannien Lock are. level the shore. Urgent petitions have been sent by the people for the strengthening of the Changkung and Lankiang Dykes, the two most im-Portant embankments protecting the Wu-Han Area. The local authorities have appealed to Nanking for financial and technical assistance. May 20.
About $800,000 will have to be expended on the Wutai Lock. and the dykes along the Yangtze River Wang, according to estimates made by the Hupeh Provincial Conservancy Bureau. Owing to the steady rise of the waters since the beginning of this month, work on the strengthening of these two points is being hastened, In conformity with the programme of the Wu-Han Flood Rehabilitation Committee, the Provincial Reconstruction Department is also. planning ike immediate construction of 'abroad along the river-front at Wuchang which will -be built high enough to serve as a dyke.
It is learnt that several thousand workers are engaged in repair and Jeonstruction work. One thousand men are working on the Wutai Lock alone, while another large batch of labourers was recently despatched to various poitits between Hankow and Kiukiang to build up the level of the dykes which are only a little more than a foot higher than the river level—Kuo Min,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.