893.48/4055: Telegram
The Chargé in China (Atcheson) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 1—noon.]
1059. Honan famine. In a despatch dated June 14 the Embassy officer at Sian comments on Honan famine conditions as follows:
American and other observers feel that the worst of the famine is over but that rehabilitation problems will be stupendous. A good wheat harvest assures sufficient food and if the ample rainfall during the spring is followed by seasonable showers in the summer the fall crops of kaoliang, millet, maize and beans should be good. Although the famine conditions are ended, people are still dying in large numbers from malnutrition and recurrent fever (epidemic in some districts).
[Page 269]Foreign relief committees have ceased direct relief except in desperate cases and are concentrating on aid to orphans, widows and transients (transients are coming into unoccupied Honan from Hopei and occupied Honan due to failure of wheat crop there and this now constitutes one of the chief relief problems) and on free medical aid to transients. Relief committee at Loyang plans to embark on social rehabilitation program in the autumn when conditions may be worse than at present with return of further refugees who left Honan during the famine. The people have been scattered, much of the land has been bought up by wealthy landlords, homes have been destroyed and the killing of livestock has been a severe blow to the farmers. The foreign relief committee obtained a grant from the Chinese Government for the purchase and distribution of animals in areas where livestock had been slaughtered but recent reports indicate that Chinese troops stationed in those areas have been taking away the animals.
The heavy concentration of troops in Honan has been a heavy burden on the people through their oppression of the population, heavy exactions and plundering. The cost of living is still high but flour, which sold for Ch$l,000 a bag of 30 pounds at height of famine, is now $160. Foreign missionaries in Honan live on meager fare, not being able to afford meat and fruits.