After Deluge, Famine

Broiling sun beat down on Hankow, China last week. It was nearly 100DEG. On the roofs of their rickety houses, Chinese hoisted scraps of cloth for shade and gazed glumly at muddy water, five to 15 feet deep, that roiled through the streets, stretched as far as they could see. On rafts made of doors, on treasured family coffins, on crude inflated goatskin life-preservers, on junks and sampans, refugees from outlying districts were cruising aimlessly. An Associated Press man went about in a sampan to see what he could see. At one point his boatman nosed up to an aged couple, up to their armpits in dirty, pestilential water, told them to move aside. They signalled him to run them down. Suicide is hateful to Chinese, but everywhere one saw them hopelessly, apathetically killing themselves.

As the waters of the Yangtze, swollen by last month's rains-rose to 53.4 ft., ten feet above flood level, and continued going higher, relief agencies were mobilizing for a task that looked impossible. Of China's great central plain, an area 500 by 1,000 miles was affected by the floods, not only of the Yangtze but of the Hwai River to the north. Homeless were 30,000,000 people; 10,000,000 were utterly destitute, with hundreds dying daily. Eventually, it was estimated, the death toll would reach 2,000,000. Pestilence was abroad, was to become worse. Hankow (pop. some 800,000) and its sister cities Hanyang and Wuchang were doomed to destruction: houses were collapsing everywhere, mud walls on which refugees perched were slowly sinking into the floodwaters. The three cities had enough cereals for three weeks. A little meat, no vegetables, no ice. The power plants were in danger.

The National Flood Relief Commission under able Minister of Finance T. V. Soong, worked busily. The Nationalist Government, already harassed by rebellion in the south, disaffection in the far west and money troubles of its own, arranged to float a $15,000,000 bond issue, provided $600,000 in ready cash. From the U. S. Red Cross came $100,000. The League of Nations Public Health Service cabled an offer of epidemiologists and supplies from stations in India, Indo-China, the Dutch East Indies and Japan. Emperor Hirohito of Japan sent $27,000. The Asiatic fleet of the U. S. Navy was mobilized for emergency work and to look after U. S. citizens (the New York Times counted 896 in the district, all safe, most of the women leaving for mountain resorts, the men remaining to watch their property). The Navy helped out by keeping Hankow in touch with Shanghai: Chinese telegraph lines were virtually useless. A plan was under consideration to mobilize all foreign navies in Chinese waters. Also, an international river patrol will be formed when the waters begin to subside.

First thing to do was arrange for transportation of food. At least 5,000,000 lb. of grain per month will be needed for the next six months. Waters will recede after several months, but slowly, for the fall of the Yangtze at Hankow is little more than one inch per mile. The Hwai River empties into the Yangtze by way of several lakes and the Grand Canal, which, ordinarily sufficient to empty it, will keep it flooded for many a month. Crops this year are already ruined; soon cold weather will freeze the water lying over the vast plain, and planting will be impossible next spring. Then there will be some more famine.

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