China When we write, the latest reports indicate that the
Yangtse is still rising. The situation in the immense valley, through which the river winds—or wound— between embankments which centuries of reinforcement have virtually transformed into a viaduct,, is one of indescribable horror. The relatively small death-roll grows slowly but surely as the waters invade or undermine the last refuges of the unfortunate inhabitants. But beyond the immediate _terrors of the flood, beyond even the swiftly-encroaching menace of famine and disease, lies the dark certainty of a desperate plight which must endure for months. Even when the waters do recede from the areas which they have desolated, a vast popula- tion, to be numbered in tens of millions, will remain homeless and destitute. The disaster itself is of a magni- tude which the widest and promptest measures of relief can only slightly palliate. Its consequences are almost too cruel to contemplate.
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