File No. 893.811/85.
[Inclosure—Extracts.]
Preliminary Report of Charles Davis Jameson, Mem.
Am. Soc. C. E., American Red Cross Engineer.
In those portions of Anhui and Kiangsu which lie north of the Huai
River, the Hungtze Lake and the old bed of the Yellow River, south
of the Province of Shantung and the present bed of the Yellow River,
and extending east and west from the sea to the Ke River, is a
section of country which has known but little rest from floods and
subsequent famines for the last two thousand five hundred years. * *
*
During the last ten or twenty years the frightful suffering due to
these floods has been brought to the notice of western nations
through the foreign missionaries, and year after year hundreds of
thousands or even millions of dollars have been poured into China
for the relief of the sufferers, three-quarters from the United
States and most of the remainder from Canada. Year after year this
money from outside has gone to feed China’s starving millions, and
much of China’s money has gone the same way, but in all these years
China has not made one single effort to have the cause of these
almost annually recurring floods investigated, and to ascertain
whether it were not possible to lower the flood level and thus do
away with the cause of the famines. * * *
During the summer of 1911 the National Committee of the American Red
Cross and the Department of State decided that an engineer should be
sent to China to make a thorough examination of this flood and
famine region, with a view to designing some scheme by means of
which the flood level could be lowered, the rivers properly trained,
and the swamps and shallow lakes drained and made available for
agriculture. Through the American Legation in Peking this offer was
conveyed to the Chinese Government, which accepted it with much
pleasure, stating that it would furnish all the assistance the
American engineer might need in the way of survey parties, etc., and
would also pay the field expenses of such parties and the expenses
of the American engineer from the time of the arrival in China until
his preliminary examination and work were completed, the National
American Red Cross paying the salary of the engineer sent. I had the
honor to be appointed by the National Committee of the American Red
Cross with the approval of the Department of State for this work,
and arrived in Peking on July 16, 1911.
[Here follows the technical engineering report and
recommendations.]
The estimated cost of the work outlined in this report will be about
35,000,000 Mexican dollars, and the time necessary for its
completion—provided no delays are occasioned by lack of money at the
time when it is needed—will be from six to seven years.
As to the results which will be obtained after the completion of the
work, they will be: the doing away of all but abnormal floods over
an area of some 17,000 square miles, the draining of this whole area
and the lowering of the flood level to such an extent that in all
but abnormal years two crops will be possible each year where under
present conditions two crops in five years is the rule.
In addition to this improvement in land which is now supposed to be
under cultivation, there will also be reclaimed some 6,000,000
Chinese mou of land which is now absolutely
valueless, being covered with shallow lakes or swamps.
There will also be a saving of the cost of the annual famine relief,
which for many years has been poured by millions and millions of
dollars into this section of China.
The moral results will be the elimination of the suffering,
starvation and degeneration of several millions of people, who now
are fast becoming beggars and robbers; the turning into producers of
these millions who now are not only non-producers but are becoming a
menace to the country and cause of unrest and lawlessness.
In view of these obtainable results, the expenditure of this vast sum
of money for the conservancy of this region is not only justifiable
from a financial point of view but is a moral necessity for the good
name of China.
