Yellow River May Change Its Course Again: Over 500,000 Refugees in Urgent Need of Relief Indications that the Yellow River may again change its course, with the resultant possibility that the present break in the south dyke, near the Honan-Shantung border may prove to be the most serious since 1852, the date of the last change of course of the River, were noted by Dr. W. Kelly and Mr. C. C. Chang during' their tour recently through the flooded areas of Shantung.
Since 2278 B.C, the river has changed its course fifteen times. Competent authorities estimate that four-fifths of the water is now going through the 2.000-metre gap and is slowly making its way towards north-fern Kiangsu, Present indications are that the flood water will flow to the Huai River through the Grand Cenal.
"While the engineers are considering methods and gathering materials for closing the broken dyke," they jsald, "emergency relief must be provided for at least 500,000 people. It is impossible for the province of /Shantung to meet such a calamity without assistance from beyond its Tt Is also impossible, stated Dr. Kelly and Mr. Chang, to make any sort of estimate of the lives lost, or fof the amount and value of properly destroyed and crops ruined. Villages inundated totalled 6.341, and it was surprising how small an area one village of a hundred families occupied. They saw. three villages, each of which had over 1,000 families, over nine-tenths destroyed. Buildings with strong foundations and brick walls—such og temples—were not able to resist the flood-waters.
"An explanation of why an area several thousand square miles has been inundated before water flowing out of the Yellow River since early July could extend to the Lunghai Railway in north Kiangsu is that [that part of Shantung west of the Grand Canal and the Tientsin-Pukow Railway. south of Yenchowfu, was undoubtedly elevated to a. slightly sloping plain by eluvial deposit from three of the earlier changes of over a beautifully clear stream almost worth a visit in itself. After a swim hhere in the shade of some old trees, we left at 1130 am. for Huan, Teached at mileage 5,288. At 12.15 the Tienmoshan cross-roads appea! 48 miles from the Hangchow station, Swinging to. the right and proceeding twelve miles up a. spur road and through a spectacular cutting in the hills a station Teached where the car may be left, for those proceeding, alter a half-mile walk over the foot hills to the Tienmu Hotel, nestling in a beautiful valley at the foot of the mountain of Tienmo. the river. Long stretches of the dykes along the Grand Canal have been broken and the water is now expanding to the east,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.