THE FAMINE IN CHINA.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPEcTATOR.']
SIR, With so much distress nearer home, it is with some diffidence that I venture to appeal to the generosity of your readers on behalf of the famine-stricken people of China. But I feel it to be a dirty which I owe to a people amongst whom I have lived for more than forty years, and for whom I, in common with all who know them, entertain a warm affection. Over the greater part of the vast plain which stretches almost without a break for 800 miles from Peking to the Yangtze there has been a complete failure of both the spring and autumn crops; and, according to a conservative estimate made by the correspondent of the Titnes and other competent observers on the spot, there are 14,000,000 people dying of starvation. The disaster is of unprecedented magnitude, and the latest newspapers from China give the most heartrending accounts of the famished sufferers, who are selling their wives and children and committing suicide en masse. Influential committees composed of leading foreign residents and prominent Chinese have been organized at Shanghai, Tientsin, Peking, and other centres, and large sums of money have been raised locally to cope with the crisis. The Governments of Hong-Kong, Singapore, and other British Colonies have contributed several lace of dollars, and the appeal which was recently made in London has already resulted in the remittance to Peking of the substantial sum of £18,600. The relief measures are being conducted by a devoted band of missionaries, most of whom are known to me personally, and who are daily risking their lives in battling with famine and disease. Forty years ago a similar
calamity, but on a much smaller scale, befell the province of Shansi, and the contribution of the British people on that occasion amounted to some £200,000. The memory of that act of munificence is still cherished by the inhabitants of Shansi, which is now the best governed and most advanced province in China. It is calculated that a sovereign will save a life, and every subscriber to the fund may rest assured that his money will be spent to the best advantage and will earn him the gratitude of the most industrious and peace-loving people in the world. Subscriptions may be sent to the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Bank, 9 Gracechurch Street, E.C. 4, or to the Honorary Secretary of the China Famine Fund, 48 Broadway, (late H.B.M. Minister to China).
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