30 APRIL 1927, Page 3

The Mississippi valley has never had such floods as those

which have submerged more than seven million acres The Mississippi valley has never had such floods as those which have submerged more than seven million acres and threaten to extend from St. Louis to New Orleans. The overflow of the main stream of the Mississippi was bad enough, but• to this was added the collapse of various embankments on smaller rivers. The New York correspondent of the Times says that half Arkansas is submerged, and that all the five rivers between Little Rock and Memphis are over their banks at the same time—a thing never before known. The inhabitants have congregated on the uplands, but some farmers are remaining in their houses and living in the sipper storeys. About 400 persons have been drowned and more than 200,000 are destitute. Aeroplanes are providing food and medical necessaries. The Governor of Louisiana has obtained leave to dynamite one of the great dykes which protect New Orleans and thus dissipate the flood before it can reach the city. This will cause the inundation of 100,000 acres of farm-land. The farmers threaten resistance and the Louisiana National Guard has been called out.