Enclosure 1.
FAMINE IN KWANGSI.
Excellency the Governor has received the foowing Report from Mr. Clementi, dated Kweishen, Kwongsei, April 28th :---
YOUR EXCELLBOY-I left Ts'amchan Fú by launch at 7.15 am. on the 27th iust., and arrived in Kweishen shortly after
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p.m. on the same day. The District Magistrate Ch'an King Wà received me with the greatest courtesy and during my stay here I am living in his Yamen. The Magistrate is an energetic man, 40 years of age, a native of Hongshan, throughly familiar with Hong- kong and Macao. He has studied Western science and methods of government with the result that he combines an eulightened effort at improvement with patriotic devotion to his country. The Magistrate tells me that he frequently walks on foot through his district city, visiting the shops and talking with the people under his administration: and this afternoon he walked with me to see the prin- cipal places of interest in Kweishen. Any petitioner is admitted directly to presence of the Magistrate as would be the case in Hong- kong. Moreover the Magistrate bas at last succeeded in practically clearing his district of robber-bands. The Magistrate in person leads his troops to the fight; and as the result of the execution of some 2,009 robbers, bad characters have found it advisable to move elsewhere.
But the result of robber-warfare, drought and flood is now apparent in the direct destitu- tion. In the company of the geutry I visited the village□
this morning
where I found the people living on grass, tree. leaves and the so-called "wooden potatos" of which I enclose a sample. Even those who
bare a little rice or 包粟(niso called
mix it with cooled tren-leaves in oruer to increase the quantity. Boys, girls and women are sold daily at the river ride. I attended such a sale this afternoon and saw babies and children handled and felt as thongh they wore pigs come to market. Some are so thin and starved that no one will purchase them. The Magistrate informs me that st first he wished to prohibit the sale, but that when he saw that unless the children were sold both children and parents must starve he cbangod his mind and allowed the sale to continue. The geutry estimate that some 10,000 children (boys and girls alike) have already been sold and that eight wives out of every ten in this district have also been sold.
With a vine to the alleviation of this distress the Magistrate and the gentry are making free distribution of grual made from
io various centres :-(1) Within Kwei- eten itself daily distribution is made to upwards of 2.000 persons in the temple of Confucius. The District Magistrate went with me this afternoon to attend such a distribution which lasted from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. But when the gru-l was all used ap there still remained over 190 persons who had to be turned away empty. (2) At distribution is made daily to upwards of 1,000 perzone: (3) At
where the distress is terrible, to upwards of 2,000 persons, (4) Ato more than 1,000 persons: (und at (5) 羅白灣 which I visited this morning, to 1,000 persons. The relief is admittedly insufficient to meet the demand: bat the district is impoverished and money is
SC.ITCH.
Here also the pawashops are closed.
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After consultation with the gentry and the District Magistrate, I have concluded that the best method of relieving those actually staying will be free distribution of gruelˇ(chak) made from at 10 contres in this district. At first I suggested rice-gruel, but the gentry and the Magistrate agreed in declaring that was far more sustaining. I find also that the people are accustomed to it and that in good years Kweishen exports large quantities of R
for consumption elsewhere. It is also, I under- stand, considerably cheaper than rice and con. sequently more can be supplied. Wuhu on the Yangtze is the port from which most
is exported: but it comes also from Tongking and no doubt can be purchased at a reasonable price in Canton. The 10 centres agreed upon
are (1) Kweishen itself: (2)東津; (3) 橘城(4) 木格(5)羅白灣 (6)五山(7) 覃塘(8)石罅墟 (9)大墟: (10) 山西 The measure to be doled out is oue quart of gruel and the amount of required for this purposa at each centre is estimated at 700 catties daily, i.e., a total of 490 piculs weekly.
(a)
It was also suggested by the Magistrate and the gentry that a method of helping those who are in great distress, although not actually
starving, will be to sell cheap rice within Kwei-| shon itself. It was recommended that the price should be 10 cents a picul more than the cost. The additional 10 cents a picul would pay for incidental expenses, while the reconversion of rice sold into money would ensure the con tinuance of the supply and thereby compel the local rice-shops to reduce their prices. I think that this recommendation is worth careful consideration. The rice would be sold only in Kweishen, where the country people could come and made their purchases, in order that its sale only to the really indigent may be insured. The control should, I think, vest in two Europeans: and if Your Excellency approves of the suggestion in my letter of the 26th inst. an unpassed cadet might be appointed to co- operate with a missionary in the administration of the supply. In Kweishon, as at Tsam-chau, Cantonese is the local dialect.
From Ts'am-chau to Kweisben there travelled with me two representatives of the Kwong Yau Charitable Society at Canton who had, like myself, been sent to report on the famine for the relief of which subscription has been organized by the officials and gentry at Canton, the Fáu T'oi camed Teng (T) making a large contribution. On my return to Canton I will ascertain and report the details of this attempt to relieve the Kwong Sai famine but iu the meantime it will be easy for Your Excellency to obtain through the Tung Wa Hospital a copy of any report made by the representatives of the Kwong Yan Shin 'T'ong, who return to Canton to-morrow, together with the details of any scheme of relief formulated as the result of such report, I have arranged with the District Magistrate of Kweishen that any money con- tributed by the Cantonese merchants shall be used in other famine contres than those set apart for the Hongkong fuad; and in any case there is little fear that too much will be con- tributed considering the enormous area of distress.
However, in view of the fact that the Cantonese representatives bave turned back at Kweishen, I have decided to push on as far as Nanning, al-
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