FAMINE IN CHINA | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 28, 1878

FAMINE IN CHINA.

Telegrams tell us that nine millions of people are in a destitute and starving condition in Northern China, owing to the famine. The following description is given in the Friend of China, by a contributor who has been actively engaged in the distribution of relief:— “People of all ages die of actual starvation by thousands. The famine extends over a district which includes at least five thousand villages, and in these latter together I am certainly within the mark in saying that five hundred die daily, perhaps one thousand may be within it. A few days ago I traversed the worst part. Thousands upon thousands have perished already. Houses are pulled down in every village to sell the timber and thatch in order to get food. Those who can get husks and dry leaves, ordinarily used for fuel, are considered well off. Most of the poor young girls had been sold; old men, middle-aged, young men, and children die daily of sheer starvation, and others freeze. The dead cannot get a burial; they are too many, and none can afford the expense; so they are cast daily into large pits.”

The London Times says:— “This description applies to the famine of 1876, which affected the sea-board provinces Shantung and Chih-li. The area affected in 1877 was inland, constituting the central part of Northern China on both banks of the Yellow River. It is thought that the distress will not have passed away until June next in Shan-si, the north of Honan, and the south of Shen-si.”