Source: Kalgoorlie Miner
URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/95625120
Date: 18/09/1947
Event: "More than 2,000,000 Chinese are facing food shortages"
Credit: Kalgoorlie Miner, Trove (National Library of Australia)
KALGOORLIE MINER - SEP 18, 1947
Starvation in China
CROPS RUINED BY FLOODS
Shanghai, Sept. 16.— More than 2,000,000 Chinese are facing food shortages, chiefly owing to crop failures from droughts and floods. The centre of the acute famine area is in the Southern Hunan Province, also the scene of last year's famine, where an estimated 1,000,000 persons are in desperate need of food.
The Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Administration is reported to have sent 10,000 tons of foodstuffs to Kwangtung, which was stricken by the recent overflow of the East, North, West and Pearl Rivers, said to be the worst flood in the area for 35 years. Before the flood the province anticipated the best rice harvest in many years. Needy people in North China have been particularly hard hit by the suspension of U.N.R.R.A. supplies, following the refusal of the Chinese Government to guarantee the safety of U.N.R.R.A officials in "war areas."
Relief officials estimated that between 300,000 and 400,000 persons in Shantung Province are suffering from food deficiency. In Honan, 300,000 needy persons have returned to reclaimed areas of the Yellow River and are dependent on imported food until the crops are harvested this month. Crop conditions in other areas of Honan Province have been good this year, however, and a better than average winter wheat crop has been harvested.
Agricultural reports from Hopeh and Jehol Provinces, in North China, indicate winter wheat harvests of only 50 per cent of normal as a result of severe droughts in April and May, which are also depleting other summer crops. Widespread famine conditions are not expected.
Distribution of foodstuffs, before the suspension of U.N.R.R.A. supplies, was described as being difficult in the North-East because of increased activities.