greater difficulty than lack of capital will' be lack of technical per~ sonnel. For the pienning of the pro}- acts a well as their execution a very highly trained staff Is necessary. Extensive surveys will need to be made, systematic observations taken, maps. charted. The are at. present excellent hydraulic engineers in China, but their number is too few. Recruits could be quickly obtained, however, by providing thereased facilities' for' engineering courses at the universities Tu considering the advisability such 2 programme as outlined above, It should be understood that the hydraulic conditions in China are becoming definitely worse. This. shown by a study of old. chronicles, which contain extensive information hydraulic problems. The maximum discharge appears to have considerably increased. More and more forests have been cut down, and hill-sides denuded of roots and Crass, causing a more rapid flow of rain-water and the silting up of the river beds, Another principal cause (described in the previous article) ig the encroachment by the population on the lake and river beds, and the building of the peoples' dykes, view of all these' factors. the result, the absence of a radical and com: prehensive conservancy programme, wil be floods more frequent atid on a greater scale than China has exerlenced for many centuries. This true eapcelally of the Han and the Yellow Rivers, Pending large scale operations, the polley must be {o maintain and. im-Frove the existing main dykes. 'Their strengthening will give a breathing space for the preparation of larger scheme; it would be, however, a lamentable mistake to' suppose that such work will by itself be suflclent.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.