The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-08-01

1ungles the sun baked fields in all or
any direction, without food, without
means, without even water. Many OF
them persisted of starvation by the way
side. The whole country was for days
Uttered with cOrpses. Many of them al
ready had died, in fr1ghtful agonies In
the space of two or three hours. The
| corpses lay for days unburied and I'M
burnt, atfording meals to vultures and
jackals.
Meanwhile all the resources of the adj
ministration, though strained to the ut
most, were hOpelessly inadequate to cope
with such situation. 1t is all the gov
| eminent can do to deal with the distress
when the people are collected In camps
numbering thousands. When they are
spread in tWos and threes over an inn
mense tract of country, timid and demon
allied by the cholera dend, it is utterly
| impossible to save them.> All that could
| be done was done. The officers of the
government worked themselves TO the
| bone. The missionaries and other VOlun-
tary helpers tOtled nobly to the same end.
| Yet for several weeks on end the mortal
1ty in Gujerat alone from cholera was at
| the rate of 1000 people a week. That
from actual starvation is not known, but
was undoubtedly heavy. Thus in SIN
| gle week the deaths in one portion OF
one afflicted province were more than
| have been caused by the Beers IN eight
| long months of war.
Lest it should be thought that the case
of Gujerat was in any way exceptional,
l may quote the case of the central prov
inces. Here there are no less than two
millions of people on famine relief out
OF total population of ten millions. Ihe
Famine Commission of a few years since,
commission formed of experts who
knew the country thoroughly and who
had carefully studied the records of all
past tamines, calculated that at no time
even under the worst conceivable famine
conditions, would more than Is per cent.
of the population be on famine relief at
any one time And yet we have here, in
the case of the central provinces, an area
of some 10000 square miles, no less than
20 per cent of. the whole population on
famine relief. In many districts 90 per
cent. of the population is in receipt OF
relief.
POPULATION TOO WEAK TO
WORK.
The famine came on these provinces
after a succession of bad years. Three
years ago there was a famine there which
was then the worst on record. The
people had by no means fully recovered
| from the effects Of this when this new
and much more terrible calamity over
whelmed them. Thus 1t has been found
that a very large proportion Of the pOpu-
! latiOn, weakened and emaciated by y3ars
of famine or semi-famine seasons, caused
| by the partial failure of the ra1ns are
now in no condition to perform the tasks
on the relief works, They are too
broken, too decrepit, to work, and have
| to be fed gratuitOusly. Thus out of the
two millions now on relief in the central
provinces nearly half are on gratuitous
relief. AS in Gujerats so here.
The lOWness, and consequent badness
of the water supply, coupled with the
extreme heat and the low physical con-
ditlOn of the people, generated an out
break of cholera, Everything that was
possible was done by the officials in
charge. But those who know India are
aware how utterly reckless is the native
OF the country as regards sanitary precau-
tions. He will, in spite of warning,
drink the hlth1est water regardless OF
consequences. The district officials did
everything in their power. They moved
| the people as they became infected from
place to place. They disinfected the good
wells; they placed watchmen over the
bad ones to prevent the people drawing
water from them; they distributed medi-
cine and comforts in all directions. Their
efforts were, at the cost of some loss of
life among themselves, to a large extent
crowned with success. But, in spite of
their noble exertions, which undoubtedly
went far toward reducing what would
otherwise have been a simply appalling
mortality, the number of deaths claimed
by the cholera fiend was hardly less than
that which has already been recorded as
having occurred at Gujerat
In the last two weeks of May, for in
stance, cholera was raging in thirteen
out of the eighteen districts of the Cen
trail Provinces. In that period no less
| than ten thousand people were attacked,
and of these some seven thousand died.
1 In some districts more than 80 per cent.
of those attacked succumbed. According
/ To Hn lot QHU vii ana
what better now, but we may have anoth
or similar outbreak at any time
MONEY is GREATLY NEEDED.
The monsoon rains, long delayed are
now beginning. Latest advices are to the
effect that the rains have broken out all
along the western coast, but they have not
as yet penetrated far into the in terror Of the
country. On the character of this year.
rains, it is not too much to say that the
fate and fortunes of millions of India'ss
people depend. Should we again have a
bad monsoon, the result would be too
terrible to contemplate. Nothing, no
efforts Of government, nor all the private
| charity which could be brought to bear.
would prevent millions of people dying of
! hunger and disease. Consequently it may
be imagined with what intense anxiety
Lord Curzon and his advisers are watch
ing the weather reports and the rainfall
! returns In the meanwhile the great
necessity of the country is more money.
There are thousands of people, hun
dreds of thousands, in fact, who cannot,
for religious and caste reasons, come to
the government relief works, and who
are cOnseq uently dependent on private
charity. Then there is warm clothing to
be provided by the same agency, clothing
without which the people in the coming
rainy season will assuredly sicken and
die There are cattle to be replaced, ad-
vances to be made to cuItivators for
grain for sowing purposes, agricultural
Implements to be bought. All this must
be done by private charity. The Govern
ment finds its resources and as men fully
occupied in the mere task of endeavoring
| to keep the people alive. Their rehabili-
tation must be elected by private charity
And for these purposes money is badly
wanted. Every cent which arrives from
To-,