Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-09

United States. and thereby pre-
serve a population capable of tremendous
consumption, win their good will and
open up to American commerce one OF
the largest, most thickly settled and
richest areas on the earth, Is a prob
lem that is being carefully studied for
legislative action in the next session OF
Congress.
Representative Edith N. Rogers OF
Massachusetts,, who for several years
has been recognized in the House for
leadership in putting through trade
development program, Is including the
Chinese situation in her program and
intends, as soon as she has the data
at hand, to introduce resolution in
Congress. She has been in conference
with President Hoover, who expressed
sympathetic interest and advised her
that he had requested a Red Cross
commission to make a special and in
tensive study for him on the needs and
best methods of relief, and especially on
the very perplexing transportation prob
lem Of how TO get the food relief to
those who need 1t most.
Other Surveys Made.
The State and Commerce Depart
nlentS have also made surveys at Mrs.
Rogers request and some of their re-
ports have emphasized the appalling
conditions and the opportunity for this
country not only to relieve suffering
humanity in dire distress. but at the
same time to develop a market for the
surplus wheat crop of the Western
States and the numberleSs commodi-
ties manufactured i'll the New England
and other Eastern States.
The Red Gross commission to make
q first-hand and intensive study for
May 80. The members are Col. Z. p.
Bicknell, w. M. Baxter and E. j. Swift.
They are to make an exhaustive inveS-
tigation and be ready to report by Fall
or early Winter.
Chinese relief has been the subject
Of earnest study by the Red Cross and
the State Department for about two
years. Information from China tends
to show that famine conditions exist in
certain large areas. Closest to the ports
Of Haichow and Tsingtau in the Kiang-
81 and Shantung Provinces an extern
Sive area centering about Tientsin, Hsu-
chow, Linchens, Yenchaw and Tsining
is one of the regions suffering with ac-
tual famine. A much larger area al
ready swept by famine is in the ShenSi
and Kansu Provinces and raging from
Sian to Liangchow and Kelung. Prac-
tically all of the region between these
two famine areas, running all the way
from Hankow to Chihfenga and Sui
yuan up into Mongolia, have had poor
food crops and are experiencing food
shortage.
Other Questions Involved.
But the Red Cross relief specialists
have found that there are many other
factors to be considered, such as trans
portation, security for workers and
supplies, danger from banditry and other
unsettled conditions, and, indeed. such
q fundamental question as to whether
o condition which has required so
often can be met through voluntary
emergency relief measures, or whether
q program of reconstruction and social
readjustment extending over many
years and involving governmental
action, such as Congressman Rogers
proposes, Is required.
The State Department has turned
over to Mrs. Rogers q comprehensive
report received from the American
consulate general at Shanghai. The
department has no Information which
1t regards as entirely dependable as to
how many individuals throughout China
are actually confronted with famine
conditions. The American Minister at
Peking cabled in February that the
American advisory committee, acting in
that city as an allotment committee
for the China Famine Relief with
headquarters in New York;, expressed
the opinion that conditions were such
as to permit of relief measures on
behalf Of 100000 Chinese suffering
from failure Of food supply due pri-
marily TO- natural, as distinguished from
that he had no hesitancy in accepting
this preliminary estimate of the re-
lievable famine area as a satisfactory
basis for relief.
The State Department is informed
however, that the total number of per-
sons in China suffering from want OF
food Is supposed to be greatly in excess
of these figures. Information has
reached the department that relief Is
being extended to famine sufferers in
China by the Chinese government and
by the International Famine Relief
Commission, with headquarters in
Peking.
Flour Demand Increases.
OF extreme significance is oflcial
Information to the State Department
that one of the most noticeable recent
tendencies is the increasing demand
for -four, which appears to be replacing
rice as an article of diet among the
poorer class Of Chinese on account of
the limited supply and increasingly
high price of rice. Imports of wheat
-four in China in 1918 from the United
States were valued at $538,928. in 1927
at $l,324,994, and in 1928 at 81 ,227 $50.
A summary of official reports received
by Congressman Rogers showing the
adviSability of supplying wheat to the
famine-stricken areas in China follows:
j. C. Huston, American consul in
Shanghai, last November stated that
reports from various outlying districts
indicated serious shortage of food due
to the failure Of crops on account Of
droughtS or locusts. The Wholesale
Rice Dealers Association at Shanghai
stated that the Kaingau Province crop
is 60 per cent, the Chekiang and
Kiangsi and Honan crops, 40 per cent;
Anhui crop, so per cent; while Human,
one of the heaviest exporters OF rice,
is 80 per cent below normal. In the
latter province the export Of rice was
prohibited from November 4. The rice
crop in Hupeh is also reported as almost
q complete failure owing TO the dryness
Of the season. Vice Consul Hinke at
Canton on December 10 notified the
department that for the province of
Kwangsi the second crop of the current
year is the worst in 20 years.
According to p. o. Nyhus. agricultural
commissioner at Shanghai, in a dis
patch on January 9. the dry season has
prevented farmers in the Tientsin re-
gion from sowing the normal acreage
OF Winter wheat, and millers fear that
their supplies for the 1929 harvest will
be small
Situation at Yunnanfu.
Vice Consul Culver B. Chamberlain.
at Yunnanfu, on January 10. reported
that a 70 per cent crop was harvested,
which is inadequate for the needs OF
the province, and rice importations
from Tonkin, French Indo-China, were
resumed. 1t is probable that rice will
be brought into Yunnan throughout the
Winter. he said. although the low pur-
chasing value of the Yunnan dollar Will