Enclosure No.1.
C.O. 245.2
Extract from the Hongkong Daily Kess dated
21st May 1908.
THE FAMINE IN KWANGSI.
ADDRESS BY MR. C. CLEMENTI,
Yesterterday afternoon Mr. C. Clementi, Relief Fand Commissioner, met the Relief Committee formed here in connection with the famine in Kwangsi, and spoke on the conditions he found existing there during his recent visit to the province. The meeting was held in the Chamber of Commerce Room, City Hall, and was presided over by H.E. the Governor. There was # good attendance of the public, and included in it were Lady Blake; Hon. Sir H. S. Berkeley, Acting Chief Justice; Hou. F. H. May, and Hon. G. Stewart.
HIS EXCELLENCY in introducing Mr. Ole- uenti, recalled the meeting that had been beld in the Legislative Council Chamber on 23rd April last, and recapitulated what he gave utterance to on that occasion. Since the Com- mittee had been formed and relief distributed, the conclusion had been come to that it would be well to recall Mr. Clementi to Hongkong and ask him to state at a public meeting what Le had himself seen in those parts of Kwangsi that he had visited; and after Mr. Clementi had furnished those details it would be agreed that everything the Committee had done had been entirely justified. (Applause.) The Committee had appealed to the different classes of the community---first to the Chinese, and then to the non-Chinese who owed their prosperity to their dealings with the Chinese people. It had appealed also to the altruistic feel- ing of charity which is found equally in the East as in the West, and which was impelled by a divine feeling of pity and a desire to assage human suffering. Those who had not subscribed to the relief of the suffering people had a perfect right to please themselves, but for those who had subscribed justification for the appeal which had been made, and which had mot with a fair response, would be found in the statement to be furnished by Mr. Clementi, whom His Excellency then introduced.
Mr. CLEMENTI prefaced his remarks by stating that he had seen it stated in the China Mail that representatives of the Chinese com- munity of Singapore were credited by Mr. Scott to have contributed $70,000 and it was further stated that in a report of his he had mentioned that a sum of $40,000 was the utwest required to relieve the famine, He had made no such statement. He never mentioned $40,000 as being sufficient; it was utterly in- sufficient. He wished to appeal to the Press not to publish anonymons letters without verifying the statements made in them. It would give
him great pain if owing to a misrepresentation of what he said in a report carelessly printed in a paper anyone should be deterred from subscribing money to relieve some of the starving people of Kwangsi. The prevailing famine was the result of the failure of three successive harvests. Mr. Clementi went on to describe what he had seen in the
districts through which he had travelled, his account being mainly an amplification of his letters already published in the Press. In Kweiping, he related, about 1,500 prisoners convicted of serious offences had been executed at the rate of from 10 to 100 each day. The bodies lay on the ground and the people came and cut off the flesh and ate it. If the butcher-man got there first he took it all and sold it at a profit. The lowest estimato of people needing relief in merely the districts he had visited was 340,000. In every single district ho visited the local Chinese officials and gentry were doing their best to relieve the famine. At the cheap-rice sales so great was the crush that many people were crushed to death, especially infants carried on their mothers' backs. In Nanning there was cholera and further up the river plague was reported to be prevalent. Trade in Kwangsi was at a standstill. There was no money. The officials were collecting Bo taxes:
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the other hand they wore doling out money; they had to support larger numbers of troops than usual. He honestly did not think one could squeeze another pehny out of Kwangsi for the relief of Kwangsi itself. Iu Kweiping and Kwaiyun the distress was terrible; in Nauuing and neighbouring district it was no less ter- rible. After describing what was being done in the way of relief measures by different agencies, Mr. Clementi said the Hongkong Committea should aim at co-operation with the Chinese or other European committees which might be started. The situation in Nanning was extre- mely urgent. There were dangers in transport- but the prefect of Nauning had promised that if there was any rice available to be sent there he would have it escorted the whole way by Chinese gunboats, and trackers would be em- ployed to get it there with all despatch. In Nanning be did not know how many thousands would have died since he was thore; but he should estimate that some 8,000 who were being fed would have died from starvation. The relief would certainly have to go on till the end of June, the beginning of next harvest, al- ways provided that the next harvest was a good one. Whatshould be rockoned for was five weeks" supply. That would mean that 18,200 pienls were needed in Nanning, in Wengsung 10,000. If they coufined themselves to these districts, leaving out Kwaigun and Tsam Chan, that would mean 28,200 piculs which, calculated at a pical for cost and freight, came to $141,0:0, of which they might expect recover $41,000 by sales.
If they included the other two districts he had mentioned the estimated sum required would be $210,750, Mr. Clementi proce ded to say that he had been met with several objections since return- ing to Hongkong. In the first place, the Kwangsi Chinese, it was argued, might do more themselves to relieve the distress, but they had done all they could, and could do no more. Then some of the big firms in the Colony had
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