People Eating Bark, Earth Brought to Taihoku Many Areas Still Flooded No Reserves of Food Taihokw, Mar. 13. Official investigations were opened here today; into the. crash of the Peiping, Mar. 18.
Japan Airways' Company's. Airspeed Reports from central Hopei state Envoy passenger monoplane at a a famine exists in. that, province, point 15 kilometres north-east of here and major tragedy. looms: as the last 'Thursday. All passengers con-people are. already at., starvation sisting of three Japanese women, one Tevel. child æd ome male Germen, as well og the Japanese pilot were killed in-Sonie of the population are said to -be living' om the bark -of trees stantly. and. eating. earth, which has caused The investigators were expected to meet with. difficulty. in ascertaining mally, deaths. the exact cause of the Mishap because The desperate shortage of food has of the death óf all occupants. even caused peasants to -up-root 'The wreckage of the cabin mono-their, wheat. stalks, thus spoiling the plane was found near Nangmata, spring crop, Shiringai, at the foot of Mount Shichi-'Conditions are especially bad sei' yesfertiay morning. ar Paotingfu, while the whole 'The bodies of. the victims, ineluddistrict betwee -Paotingfu and ing that of Herr Eno Popp, a German Tientsin, it has been ascertained, is trony Shanghai, were brought to Taian area of famine, still inundated haku yesterday. with last year's flood waters, When the aeroplane took off from Giran-on -the east of Formosa on a he people in these areas have to one-hour flight to Taihoku last Thurs-fina means of living, without garner= day afternoon, the sky was overcast ing fresh crops, until September. and visibility poor.—Domei.
Food Commandeered Migrations are afoot in some districts, and the position has been made more desperate by the fact that: peasants have no food reserves, these having been commandeered either by, Chinese guerillas or Japan-nese forces.
'The number facing starvation, following last year's flood, was 3,000,000 in the province of Hopei, and' 1,000,- 000 in the province of Shantung.
About 12,600 villages have been devastated in Hopei, and 5,000 in Shantung. It is probable that conditions will become worse, reaching a climax in the spring, as an increasing number of people are threatened with disaster, In Peiping, pooter families are reduced from three to one meal a
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.