Squandered Lives

Last year three million Chinese died, 20 million were affected by the great Honan (Central China) famine. Chungking correspondents last week reported another famine, this time in the Kwangtung area in South China. More than 1,000,000 Chinese have died there since last June; millions more are in acute want.

Lean, dark George Adams, U.S. representative of the International Relief Committee, recently visited Kwangtung, told of what he had seen when he returned to Chungking last week. Said Adams:

"Homes were torn down, the timber sold for firewood and the rest of the houses sold brick by brick. Roads leading to the markets were strewn with corpses.

"Eighty per cent of the population of some villages has been wiped out. Countless thousands of children are orphans. I have seen orphanages where children died at the rate of 20 a day and in other homes, still-living foundlings condemned as hopeless and their bodies placed in a room already strewn with dead children."

The Squeeze. Prices have skyrocketed because of blockade, crop failures, hoarding by merchants, officials and speculators. International relief agencies maintain 75 stations in the stricken area, but must pay prohibitive prices for what food they have.

Only rapid, bulk transportation can save hundreds of thousands from death. Transport is not available in the quantities needed. But, despite, the unavoidable handicaps, the Chungking Government can tighten administrative measures, drive out hoarders, eliminate the corruption which impedes relief efforts.

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