English Dictionary

Some idea of the extent of the calamity, which is due to the excessive rains of the summer, resulting in the complete failure of the crops and the destruction of many homesteads, may be gathered from the fact that the committee with probably make an appeal for at least £250,000. Help will be solicited not only from Shanghai, but from Great Britain, America and the continent of Europe. Even should all the amount asked for be raised, it will only permit of an expenditure equal at most to about sixpence per head of the starving and homeless people. For although the term Kiangpeh is conveniently applied to the distressed district, the famine is felt in large portions of the four provinces of Kiangsu, Anhui, Honan, and Shantung, over a tract estimated at 40,000 square miles in area and in the most thickly populated part of the empire.