Evening star., 1938-06-15
Old Man River.

"Chinas Sorrow otherwise known as
the Yellow River, has entered the great
Asiatic war as a protagonist which is
already playing a mercilessly devastating
role and showing small favor to either
side. Overlooking on scale outstripping
In destructive dimensions any of the vast
floods which China has experienced
through the years, Japanese military au-
thorities in Shanghai, naturally venting
wishful thoughts report that 100000
Chinese civilians have been drowned in
the surging waters now engulfing wide
portion of Northern Honan Province.
Tokios spokesmen say less, or nothing,
of the grave losses the Japanese army
has also undoubtedly suffered, for the
great river, in jumping it's banks and
breaking through massive dlkes as If
they were sieves, has swept into its
palpitating path whole regiments of the
invaders, massed in force near Cheng-
chow, main objective of Japans recent
offensive along the Lunghai railway.
These operations are now stalled by the
violent rampage on which China's Old
Man River has gone.
International Red Cross officials in
the disaster area describe the food as
probably the greatest in Chinas history.
Its course may strike anywhere on
rough line between Chengchow and
Suchow, then into the Grand Canal and
along the rivers old bed through North
Kiangsu Province to the Yellow Sea. The
old bed entered the sea 200 miles south
of the present outlet on the other side
of Shantung Peninsula. Early details
leave no doubt of the intensity and
magnitude of the latest plight to over
take stricken China and her insular op-
pressors. Boiling yellow water is 10
feet deep north Of Chungmow, about Is
miles east Of Chengchow. Numerous
villages are inundated and at several
points where the Yellow River crosses the
Lunghai Railway, the water is two or
three feet deep.
If the flood continues to sweep across
IL
of the area occupied by Japanese troops
during the past month in their frantic
and semi-victorious campaign to cut the
east-west Lunghai line preparatory to an
advance upon Hankow, 300 miles to the
south. Flood experts point out that this
is somewhat problematical, because the
course of Yellow River floods can never
be predicted with certainty. Whatever
betides, it is plain that the mounting
waters OF Central China's mighty stream
will not only retard the Japanese Army's
advance and hinder its communications,
but also, because of the torrential effects
in far-flung directions, may seriously
and perhaps permanently disarray the
whole japanese plan of campaign. Mill
tary occupation of the flooded sections,
tens of thousands of miles in extent, is
palpably put in jeopardy and may be-
come untenable.
This crowning calamity will galvanize
into new life the philanthropic interest
Of all Americans in China's Gethsemane.
On many occasions in the past, at those
intermittent periods when the Chinese
people lived in relative peace, the purses
OF this Nation were freely opened to
ameliorate the effects of minor disasters
like floods and famines. Now that
China, in addition to suffering those
vicissitudes on monumental scale, also
faces the paramount pestilence of inva-
sion and war, it is to be hoped that
American generosity will flow in that un-
happy lands direction on an unprece-
dented scale.