The new year has opened disastrously for Japan. In spite
of the reticence of officials and of the people affected, it is now clear that widespread distress—due to a failure of the rice crop and the fisheries—is prevailing in Hokkaido, and in the north-eastern and poorest provinces of Japan. According to one account, no fewer than nine millions of people are on the verge of starvation. But when all allowance is made for exaggeration, it seems beyond doubt that prompt and extensive relief measures are needed to prevent a heavy death-roll. All classes are affected, but chiefly the poor in the towns, and an appeal for funds is being made by a group of leading financiers and Members of Parliament, with the united sup- port of the Press, to supplement the appropriations and loans amounting to about £1,000,000 which are being arranged by the Government. Simultaneously with this threat of famine in the north-east comes the news of a great disaster at Kago- shima, the capital of Satanma, where the island of Saknrashima has been devastated by a volcanic eruption, accompanied by hundreds of earthquake shocks felt throughout the whole of Kite:nn. The loss of life is estimated at seven thousand on the island of Saknrashima, Kagoshima has been deserted by its inhabitants, and telegraphic and railway communications have been interrupted. Friday's telegrams state that no further disasters are anticipated.
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