The Chinese. Famine The Chinese International Famine Relief Commission has
reported on the famines in Shensi and Shansi. In Central Shensi there are 5,000 square miles affected by the famine and in Shansi there is a much smaller area where the famine is equally severe. It is estimated that 2,000,000 persons have died during the past year and it is believed that 2,000,000 more will die before the next harvest. The Peking correspondent of the Times says. that in some places the people arc eating leaves and any rubbish they can obtain. Many are awaiting death in quiet despair ; others with enough energy are becoming bandits. By a singular misfortune the winter is the most severe experienced for forty years. It seems that this famine is due, as most famines are, to the lack of transport. There is plenty of food in various parts of China, but the railways have been broken up in the Civil War and food cannot be conveyed' in sufficient quantities to the 'starving people. It would be pleasant to be able to add that the National Government at Nanking is making appreciable efforts at relief. Unfor- tunately, the fatalists look on as though they were contemplating a convulsion of Nature which science and civilization could do nothing to stay. The thoughts of foreigners who are threatened with the abolition of their Treaty privileges must be affected by this indifference.
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