30 MILLIONS HUNGRY 21 Aug 1931
TERRIFIC FLOOD
IN CHINA
(Special Service)
SHANGHAI. Thursday.
THIRTY-ONE millions of Chinese are on the verge of starvation through the Yang-tse flood, which affects an area 1000 miles long and 50 miles wide.
Homes and crops in the flood belt have been destroyed. Hankow is in undated, and the horrors of the dis
aster have been augmented by disease resulting from floating corpses.
A shortage of drinking water and of food is causing alarm. Damage running into millions has been done to property, while undermined buildings have collapsed, killing the inmates.
HIDEOUS PROSPECT
Hankow streets lie under seven feet of swirling water, which will take months to subside. Unless the city
is rebuilt, it may go off the map. The Government and foreigners in Shanghai are raising relief funds.
Nanking proposes the purchase of 30,000,000 bushels of American wheat on 20 years’ credit, by way of anticipating the inevitable winter famine.
This famine, it is feared, will be the greatest calamity that the nation has ever experienced.