Evening star., 1938-06-14
Worst Catastrophe
Is Seen-Japan's
Troops Halted.

JupuUSSe NuUy OutuTuuy dH-
nounced plans for driue on Han
koU, China's provisional capital.
This action Uas taken to mean
Japan had decided to make this
campaign her chief assault In
most dramatic battle of par thus
far Japan's troops yesterday took
Anking on ,Oay to HankotD.
By the Associated Press.
SHANGHAI, June 14.-Japanese
military authorities said tonight they
believed 100000 Chinese civilians had
been drowned by flood waters Of the
Yellow River now spreading over .
wide area in Northern Honan Province.
Flood conditions were said to be
worst in the CAungmow area, about
Is miles east of Chenghow, the railway
junction which has been objective Of
Japan's recent offensive, now stalled
by the Yellow Rivers overflow.
Japanese officers here said they had
no information concerning the fate Of
large Japanese forces scattered
through the flooded area.
Most of the victims, they said. were
Chinese farmers and their families.
Dikes Are Broken.
Reports from the war zone along
the Lunghai Railway, course of
Japans westward push. said dikes Of
the Yellow River, known for gener-
ations as "China's sorrow" had been
broken badly at three main points.
Chungmow City itself was under
3 feet of water and scores Of villages
were inundated.
The japanese asserted their own
army engineers were working day and
night to fill breaks in the dikes, as-
sisted by hundreds of Chinese farmers.
but the work was hampered by Chinese
troops firing on the repair gangs.
At one point there was said to be
a break 500 feet wide in the dikes.
through which the food was racing
into the low plains.
Fears Are Expressed.
Even before the Japanese military
reports were received engineers IA
miliar with the Yellow River expressed
fears one of the greatest catastrophes
Of the century was imminent.
Chinese reports from the front said
the Japanese had been forced to with
draw as far as Kaifeng. 43 miles east
of Chengchow on the Lunghai Rail-
way.
These reports said the boiling yellow
water was 10 feet deep north of Chung
NOW, about IS miles east of Cheng-
chow. that numerous villages were In
undated and that the flood was 2 and 3
feet deep at several points where 1t
crossed the Lunghai Railway.
Engineers and relief workers familiar
with the destruction that can be
wrought by "China's Sorrow" as the
stream is called because of its frequent
floods, said the present upsurge was
only preliminary to the heavy flow that
normally is not at its height until mid.
July.
Dikes Are DESTROYED.
Deliberate destruction of the dikes,
which in many places confine the river
to course above the level of the sur
rounding country, by japanese artillery
fire and airplane bombing and by the
Chinese themselves to impede the in
vader, was said by these experts to be
largely responsible for the present
overflow. However, there have been
heavy rains, too.
Lack of dixie maintenance in recent
months while battles ragged on the
banks of the big stream was believed
to have aided breaks in other places.
John Earl Baker, at present head
Of the International Red Cross relief
work here and formerly investigating
engineer for the Yellow River Com
mission, said the course of the food
might strike anywhere on a rough
line between Chengchow and Suchow.
then into the Grand Canal and along
the old bed Of the river through North
Kiangsu Province to the sea.
The old river bed entered the sea
200 miles south of the present outlet
on the other side of the Shantung
Peninsula.
This course would sweep across
much of the area now occupied by
Japanese troops and lines of COM
munications established in their Shan
tung campaign to cut the East-West
Lunghai Railway for an advance upon
(see FLOOD, Page Aid -