The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-10-15
CHINESE PARENTS
EATING CHILDREN
Millions in the Interior Face
Starvation-Situation
Most Critical.
National News Associa tion)

SHANGHAI, China, Oct. 14.--Mil
lions face starvation in Central China
Parents are eating their children in
the flood stricken districts. Maraud
ing bands are in control and head the
fight for the survival OF the fittest.
Missionaries coming from the in
terror states that the situation sur
passes anything within the history OF
the country. From Ichang to the sea.
q distance of a thousand miles, the
valley OF the Yangtse is bordered by
heaps of decaying dead, while the
black flag and canibalism hold undis-
puted sway. The flood devastated
villages are overrun with starving
Chinese. The water sodden ground
10 past all cultivation. The rice crop
is completely destroyed, and even the
grass along the river-bank has been
utilized as food. Not q dog, rat or
bird that could be captured has been
spared.
The same conditions prevail in all
the valleys in Central China. Reports
from the interior proclaim a state of
anarchy. All trade Ia suspended and
the principal cities will soon be in
state OF siege, with their Inhabitants
facing starvation. The government Is
unable to cope with the conditions.
Millions of dollars In food are needed
vt once.
Flood and drought and famine are fire.
Quent in China, as attested by the mil
lions of dollars which have been sent
hele from Europe and America for the
relief of the starving. But the oldest
foreign resident cannot remember a
time when these misfortunes fell with
such q force at at present. Never be-
fore has such q large number of peo-
ple been affected by the flood, and
never have they been SO i'll prepared
to withstand it, for this is the third
and most disastrous flood of three
years.
Each year the heavy rains along
the Nan. the Yuan and the Slang cause
slight floods which are quickly carried
.sSwxyAS5-Ahe Yangtse, into which these
rivers flow@
Usually tho annual Yangtse floods
follow these smaller floods q few
months later ana the damage done is
slight. This year the heavy rains
came late and were more violent than
usual. Entertainments along the Yuan
and the Nan were broken and the
Eiang river filled Tung Ting Lake un-
til this bog body of water encroached
on all the farm lands along its shores.
This flood was at it's height, when
melted snow in Thibet came rushing
down the Yangtse gorges and at
Ichang, where the great river enters
the plains country, filled the river
bank full. Tung Ting lake became
IN inland sea. The rivers filled high
or and higher until, they reached the
tops of the embankments, often ten
to fifteen feet above the level of the
surrounding country. Then. one by
one. the entertainments broke. sending
floods Of water. ten feet deep, rushing
across the plain. sweeping all before
It. Often plains were flooded for a
distance Of sixty miles before the wa
ter reached the foot hills.
Driven from their homes, thousands
Of refugees fled to the hills and camp
cd on the sides in little mat sheds.
Hero they have been making pitiful ef-
forts to preserve their lives until the
subsiding flood gives them an oppor-
tunity to return to their homes. They
brought with them in their flight small
stocks Of rice but in the weeks of
waiting this has been exhausted and
now they are eating anything that
holds any nourishment. On the hill
sides, they are digging into the ground
with their bare fingers to get roots of
weeds and grass and some have mixed
clay with their rice in order to give
It more bulk. In Anhui province the
refugees have overrun the wheat fields
which were recently harvested and are
cleaning the stubble Of every grain
which was left by the harvesters.
Those who have been able to reach the
larger cities are offering their child
rem for sale, many little girls being
sold for q few dollars and the boys for
Q eighty larger amount. In the small
Or villages which have been cut off
from any food supply for weeks can
knibalism 10 the depths to which starva-
Ition has driven the flood victims.
Many parents have eaten their own
children.
Ordinary flood statistics are insight.
ficant in comparison to those which
arc necessary in enumerating the ex-
tent Of this flood. For a thousand
miles the Yangtse is q vast inland sea,
it, former course serving only as a
channel in the stream which stretches
sway to the horizon or the hills on
either side. For two hundred miles
to the north Of the Yangtse the Han is
out Of it, banks and south of Han
kow. Tung Ting lake is SO far out Of
it, banks that 1t has flooded villages
flfty miles inland. In one village six
hundred were drowned. in another
three hundred. At least ten thousand
were drowned in the villages and
towns alone. An area of a hundred
thousand square miles, as large as a
European country is under water, its
crops ruined, and its population home
less. AZ to the number which are
Starving. two millions is a conserva-
i've estimate. the most conservative
Of any which have been made. After
4 three weeks trip through the flooded
region. 1t 10 my opinion that the num-