Floods and famine in the Yangtse Valley
Letter from Bishop Galvin
November 1, 1931
May God pity us and our poor people - we are in a dreadful plight these past few weeks. The Yangtse is 53 feet above its normal level today and the floodwaters have reached heights far above all previous records. The distress on all sides is appalling - thousands of people drowned, tens of thousands dying from starvation, millions homeless. It is heartbreaking to go out - to witness these harrowing sights and feel that you are powerless to relieve the suffering.
Here at the mission in Hang Yang we are doing our best but the refugees are rushing in on us so fast that we simply cannot deal with them. Their appeals would move a heart of stone. This is what they say to me: "We know the Bishop cannot do anything more for us. All he had is gone too. We have lost everything, our rice crops are gone, our houses are swept away and what we were able to save the Reds have taken. We have eaten nothing for days and our little babies are sick and dying from exposure to the blazing sun. Let us die here..." I can do nothing. It is dreadful.
Here at St Columban's we are packed like sardines in a tin. The water downstairs is eight feet deep and the yard outside is flooded to a depth of 15 feet. We may well thank God that we still have a roof over our heads and some food to eat. Out opposite us on a hill at the rear of the mission, hordes of starving people are huddled together among the graves. They are living in the open air with nothing to shelter them from the burning sun.
A few days ago I met a little Catholic girl of 17 or 18 years. She had been in the embroidery school for two years and then went home to be married; now she is back again with twin babies. What a haggard, famished little thing she looked when I met her the other day. I told her I would be able to give shelter to her and her starving babies and her gratitude knew no bounds. She broke down utterly in a paroxysm of tears and I thanked God from my heart that I was able to help her.
Fr Maguire had an extraordinary escape in Huan Ja San. Communists surrounded the mission there at 11:00pm. An old beggar man, who proved to be a Communist spy, had been hanging around the mission and had supplied them with the necessary information. Luckily, he seemed not to have discovered where Fr Maguire slept at night and took it for granted that it was in some room within the compound. Fr Maguire realised the danger and instead of sleeping at the mission, was sleeping in a Catholic house in the village at the rear of the compound.
The Communists rushed in and barred the exits. Others demanded of the teachers where the foreigner was. The teachers gave evasive answers and kept the Communists talking as long as they could. Meanwhile another teacher scaled the wall, rushed to the house where the priest was sleeping and told him that the mission was surrounded. Fr Maguire stole out quietly and hid among the vegetables in a field about 30 yards from the house where he had been sleeping.
When news of the priest's danger reached a neighbouring house, Rosa Yu, a young girl of 17, ran in her nightdress to the house where Fr Maguire was sleeping to warn him of his danger. When she found out he had left and was hiding in the field, Rosa hurried back to her own home but on the way encountered a group of Communists. Suspecting that she had warned the priest, they took her prisoner and demanded of her to tell them where the foreigner was. She refused to tell. They took her to her own house and in the presence of her mother and aunt, threatened to shoot her if she did not betray the priest. She refused. They put a revolver to her head but she would give no information.
I have given you but the barest outline of conditions here. No words of mine could give you any idea of the misery and desolation that surrounds us. During these last few weeks I have seen sights that I shall carry with me to the grave. And God help us, the worst is yet to come. When the floodwaters subside, famine, disease and death will decimate the people. Already they are dying like flies; cholera alone, to say nothing of other diseases, is killing them in thousands.
I want you to ask the people, the priests, the sisters, and especially the little children to pray for our homeless people, for the priests and for me. We shall have to face the most terrible year we ever faced since we came to China.
May God be with you all,
Yours very sincerely,
Edward J. Galvin
Did you know?
The Yangtze River is the longest River in both Asia and China. It is the third longest river in the world with a length of 6,300kms. The Yangtze is the most important river in China. In some parts the depth of the Yangtze is 500 - 600 feet, the greatest depth of any river in the world.
At Wuhan and Han Yang the river flows at 847,000 cubic feet per second. The 1931 flood resulted from heavy monsoonal rains. During May and June six huge flood waves swept down the river destroying the protecting dams and levees in 23 places and flooding more than 35,000 square miles of land. Forty million people were left homeless.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
