Evening star., 1932-07-22
BARES HUGE TASK
IN. CHINESE FLOOD
Sir John Simpson Describes
Rebuilding bikes and
Saving Millions.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

ollS VI IIle greatest IdSkS Ol leCOIl-
st-uction the world has ever known is
about finished-the rebuilding and re-
population Of the Yantze Valley in
China, where 100000 people were
made homeless and starving by the floods
of last year. The work has been ac
Complished by self-sacriflce and hero
ism of which any nation would be
proud, and by an infinite amount of
labor.
Sir John Hope Simpson, director
general of flood relief who is now on
his way to New York and England,
speaks of his Chinese helpers with
unqualified admiration, although the
difficulties were great in dealing with
some OF them, due to petty thefts and
dishonesty.
Sir John will make report of the
work at Flood Relief Committee meet
ing in New York July 26, but he has
never told before the dramatic story of
flooded China.
The two main phases Of the work
were building dikes and caring for the
refugees. AS for the dikes, one illus
tration will indicate the stupenoGus
nature OF the task If I'll the cart II
used in the dixie building here up to
June 10 were placed in one long line
it would form a wall 612 feet high and
6l2 feet wide around the world at the
Equator
l,75O,0CO People Working.
There was an average OF $4,000 peo-
pie, men and women, working on the
dikes under the National Flood Relief
Commission for 100 days, and the great
est number at work on any one day
was 100000. But as there were many
others working on private dikeS 1t is
probable that the number of people
ctually engaged in building dlkeS was
not less than 1,750000.
The relief work covered an area OF
81 counties in seven provinces affected
by the food, 34.OO) square miles, and
in these counties were more than l,2OO
food kitchens, each of which fed an
average of 1000 persons day, or about
2.4OO 900 people for five months. Alto
gether probably 100000 people were
cared for by all agencies engaged in
flood relief, large proportion of whom
would have died of starvation. Men
and women committing suicide rather
than starve were common in the flood
region before the commission began its
work.
1t was not time for sticking to con-
ventionalities. and Sir John, who had
charge of repatriating the Greeks for
four years and has handled tough JOBS
in India and Africa, didn't bother about
red tape. Boys and girls of as much
as 10 years old were being sold by their
parents, and the commission did not
overlook this obvious way of preventing
children from either becoming slaves
or starving.
1000 Children Bought.
At least 1000 children, most Of them
5 or 6 years OLD, were bought Tor
81 a year by agents of the commission,
and when they had been fed and cared
for several weeks by the relief organi-
zation were sent back to their parents
Sir John tells many stories OF the
heroism of people with whom he came
in contact on his inspection trips. and
also some of the amusing incidents
which took place. such as the great
tooth pulling cay at Chen-Yang Kan:
This city has been taken by the
Communists and they at once divided
peopIe into three classes-the military
prisoners. the political prisoners or
bourgeoisie, and the poor. Their man
ner of deciding into which of the last
two classes a man fell was sometimes
determined by looking into his mouth,
and if man had gold tooth he was
classified as one Of the bourgeoi5ie. II
he had none he was deemed poor and
permitted to go free.
The mortality among gold teeth was
amazing. Around every corner was
some one helping some one else pull out
a tooth. for the Chinese are addicted to
gold teeth.
A mo-e somber story is that of the
1000 refugees who came up to the
Yangtze on the Communist side of the
river. They were starving, but the
nationalist troops on the other bank
would not let them cross because they
were thought to be Communists.
I'VE are not Communists" they said.
1--WE are merely poor and We have been
living on grass and dirt. If you do not
believe US cut one of US open and see
for Yourselves"