Shanghai, June 1
'With 2,000 North. Honan villages under, water, 700,000 destitute Chinese farmers yesterday sought safety from the relentlessly spreading flood' waters from the breached embankments of the Yellow River, Japanese Army engineers, battling the flow, estimated. that 2.335. square Ilometres had been inundated. by daybreak yesterday." On. Thursday, {he flooded aren covered 1,600" square Fears of mounting casualties amon the (Chinese "peasantry" inerensed ete ang yesterday, og an additional ce. villages and' hamlets were. orled being gradually swallowed by the rising woters, Domei reports said, Conservative estimates placed the number of refugees under: the. core of "the. Jepanese army. in. "various towns' at "200,000, "these "dispatches added, Marooned villagers—hungry, cold and thirsty—in spite of the' vast Quantity of water around them, were relying upon the bark of {tees for sustenance,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.