Drought—Starvation—Inland Disturbances—Rainfall and disease
It is difficult for us in England to understand how far-reaching may
be the evils, resulting from the complete failure of the rainfall, in
countries where the population relies upon it for their daily bread. A
brief mention, in the Press, of the lateness of the monsoon gives no
sign of the anxiety with which many millions of people are regarding
the approaching harvest. Water means life to the rice-fields, and a
drought implies, not alone the failure of a staple crop, but famine,
with disorder and starvation, disease and death, as its accompaniments.
A drought in the rice-fields makes a holocaust of the people in the
winter. The forces of law and order at the disposal of the Government
of India place some restraint upon the populace. In the Far East, where
the civil administration is incompetent to deal with the exigencies of
the situation, and the systematic dispensation of relief is unknown, the
decimation of the population and the complete upheaval of the social
fabric follows closely upon the break-down in nature. Indirectly, too,
the consequences of famine in India prove this.
An even more emphatic evidence of the effects of a drought, where the
population live upon the rice crop, is afforded by the appalling loss
of life and the grave eruption of disorder, which took place in Korea
as the consequence of the famine in 1901. Widespread ruin overtook the
country; the inland districts were thronged with mobs of desperate
people. Persons, normally peace-loving and law-abiding, banded together
to harass the country-side, in the hope of extorting sufficient food to
keep their families and themselves from starvation. Hunger drove whole
communities from the villages to the towns, where no provision for their
welfare existed. Anarchy prevailed throughout the country, the dire
needs of the population goading them to desperation. A horde of beggars
invaded the capital. Deeds of violence made the streets of Seoul unsafe
after darkness, and bandits carried on their depredations openly in the
Metropolitan Province. From a peaceful and happy land of sunshine and
repose, Korea was transformed, in a few months, into a wilderness of
misery, poverty, and unrest.
The measures for relief were quite inadequate, and although rice was
imported, large numbers of the people, lacking the money with which
to buy it, starved to death. The absence of an efficient organisation
in the face of this further disaster increased the confusion. Before
any arrangements could be made for their relief, several thousands
had died. More than 20,000 destitute people were discovered in Seoul,
out of a population of rather less than 200,000. Reports from the
provincial centres disclosed a relapse into a state of absolute savagery
in many rural districts. Famine, pestilence, and death stalked abroad
in Korea for months, and many, who escaped starvation, lost their lives
subsequently in the great wave of disease which swept over the land.
[Illustration: THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN, SEOUL]
It is impossible to believe that the famine would have assumed its late
proportions had the Government of Korea maintained its embargo against
the exportation of cereals from the country. There can be no doubt that
the withdrawal of this prohibition contributed to the scarceness of the
food-stuffs which were procurable by the people, when their straits were
most severe. Mortality returns from the areas devastated by the famine
prove that the welfare of more than one million persons was affected.
The action of Japan, therefore, in insisting upon the suspension of the
prohibition in order that the interests of some half-dozen Japanese
rice merchants might not suffer, deserves the utmost condemnation. The
primary responsibility for this great loss of life rests entirely with
the Japanese Government. In terrorising the Government of Korea into an
act, the consequences of which brought death to one million people, the
Japanese Government committed themselves to a policy which traversed
alike the dictates of reason and common sense, and outraged every
principle of humanity. The impartial observer must hold Korea guiltless
in this matter. It is, indeed, deplorable that the vehement opposition
of the Korean Government was not respected. Nevertheless, the incident
is valuable, as an illustration of the objectionable attitude which
distinguishes the Government of Japan in its relations with Korea.
At the beginning of the drought the inhabitants of Seoul believed that
the Rain God was incensed. The Emperor and his Court offered expiatory
sacrifices upon three occasions. As the rains were still withheld a
period of penance was proclaimed, in which prayers and fastings were
ordained, the populace ceasing from every form of labour and relapsing
into a condition of supreme idleness. Unhappily, while the great mass
of the people refrained from work, the Emperor continued to employ many
hundreds of labourers upon the construction of the new Palace buildings.
This proceeding was held by the superstitious subjects of His Majesty to
account for the singular inclemency of the Rain Demon, and some anxiety
was felt in the capital lest the usual calm of the city should be broken
by riots. These horrors were spared to Seoul, however, by the fortuitous
visitation of a passing shower. Men and women resumed their toil,
rejoicing in the belief that the evil influences had been overcome. It
was, however, but a brief respite only that was granted. In a short time
the drought prevailed throughout the land, drying up the rice-fields,
scorching the pastures, and withering the crops. Under this baneful
visitation, the circumstances of the people became very straitened.
Hundreds were reduced to feeding off the wild roots and grass of the
wayside, and isolated cases of cannibalism were reported.
The exceptional character of the drought lends interest to the
hydrometrical records for Chemulpo from 1887 to the middle of 1901,
which were forwarded to the bureau by the correspondent of the Physical
Observatory, St. Petersburg. The rain-fall given is for the years 1887
to 1900, inclusive, and the first half of 1901; the snow-fall is reduced
to the proportion of water which the melted snow would make. Professor
H. Hulbert has pointed out, however, that in estimating what is or what
is not a proper amount of rain, it is necessary to know in what season
of the year the rain has fallen. Thirty inches of rain in November would
be of less value to the rice-fields than half that amount if it fell in
June. In the cultivation of rice, rain must fall at the proper time.
Otherwise it is valueless, and, although adding to the actual measurement
of the fall, a very considerable deluge, under these conditions, would be
of no material advantage to agricultural interests.
HYDROMETRICAL RECORD
+------+---------+---------+-------++---------+---------+---------+
| YEARS| RAINFALL| SNOWFALL| TOTAL || FOG | RAIN | SNOW |
+------+---------+---------+-------++---------+---------+---------+
| | inches | | || | | |
| 1887 | 30.86 | 2.00 | 32.86 || 13d 3h | 19d 17h | 4d 2h |
| 1888 | 20.91 | 2.15 | 23.06 || 14d 5h | 12d 6h | 3d 3h |
| 1889 | 28.18 | 0.91 | 29.09 || 25d 13h | 25d 5h | 5d 9h |
| 1890 | 47.00 | 1.06 | 48.06 || 12d 18h | 27d 10h | 0d 64h |
| 1891 | 41.04 | 1.66 | 41.70 || 13d 5h | 30d 20h | 3d 7h |
| 1892 | 34.04 | 1.20 | 35.24 || 15d 20h | 16d 10h | 4d 6h |
| 1893 | 50.64 | 3.55 | 54.19 || 31d 5h | 36d 6h | 8d 11h |
| 1894 | 31.81 | 0.64 | 32.45 || 33d 18h | 21d 9h | 1d 8h |
| 1895 | 31.88 | 2.06 | 33.94 || 32d 7h | 29d 11h | 6d 17h |
| 1896 | 31.08 | 5.15 | 36.23 || 51d 7h | 27d 0h | 2d 0h |
| 1897 | 48.35 | 3.23 | 51.58 || 24d 5h | 31d 17h | 4d 18h |
| 1898 | 37.80 | 4.73 | 42.53 || 31d 14h | 29d 19h | 5d 15h |
| 1899 | 25.07 | 2.05 | 27.12 || — — | 18d 19h | 1d 3h |
| 1900 | 29.14 | 0.83 | 29.97 || — — | 21d 2h | 0d 20h |
| 1901 | 7.09 | 0.06 | 7.15 || 7d 5h | 3d 7h | 2d 0h |
+------+---------+---------+-------++---------+---------+---------+
I give, also, the rainfall during the years 1898-1901, at the period when
a plenteous rain is of supreme importance to the rice industry:
+------+------+------+--------+-------+
| YEAR | JUNE | JULY | AUGUST | TOTAL |
+------+------+------+--------+-------+
| 1898 | 4.5 | 10.0 | 11.0 | 25.5 |
| 1899 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 6.7 | 22.7 |
| 1900 | 2.0 | 6.2 | 4.5 | 12.7 |
| 1901 | 0.3 | 2.7 | 1.1 | 4.1 |
+------+------+------+--------+-------+
In a rice-growing country such as this is, it is essential that an
adequate supply of rain should fall during the three summer months to
allow of the seed-rice being transplanted and to ensure the maturing of
the grain. In 1901, owing to the lack of water, the bulk of the seed-rice
was never transplanted at all. It simply withered away.
It is, of course, inevitable that one of the immediate results of
famine should be a general increase of mortality throughout the country.
The impoverished condition, to which so many thousands of Koreans were
reduced, weakened their constitutions so seriously that, in many cases,
even those who were fortunate enough to escape starvation found their
powers fatally impaired. There were many whose inanition and general
debility, resulting from their deprivations, had rendered them peculiarly
susceptible to disease. More particularly was this the case in the inland
districts.
Under normal conditions, malaria is, perhaps, the most common disease in
Korea. It prevails in all parts of the country, but it is specifically
localised in sections where there are numerous rice-fields. Small-pox is
nearly always present, breaking out in epidemic form every few years.
Nearly all adults, and most children over ten years, will be found to
have had it. Leprosy is fairly prevalent in the southern provinces,
but it spreads very slowly. While this disease presents all the
characteristics described in the text-books, the almost imperceptible
increase, which distinguishes its existence in Korea, is strong
presumptive evidence that it is non-infectious.
The great enemy of health is the tubercle bacillus. The want of
ventilation, the absence of sanitation, and the smallness of the houses,
foster this little germ. Tubercular and joint diseases are common;
also fistula, hare-lip, diseases of the eye, throat and ear. The most
common disease of the eye is cataract; of the ear, suppuration of the
middle drum, in the great majority of cases the result of small-pox in
childhood. Cases of nasal polypi are also very numerous. Hysteria is
fairly common, while epilepsy and paralysis are among other nervous
disorders which are encountered. Indigestion is almost a national
curse, the habit of eating rapidly large quantities of boiled rice and
raw fish promoting this scourge. Toothache is less frequent than in
other countries; diphtheria and typhoid are very rare, and scarlet fever
scarcely exists. Typhus, malarial remittent fever, and relapsing fever
are not uncommon. Venereal disease is about as general as it used to be
in England.
In short, there is a preponderance of diseases which result from filthy
habits, as also of those produced by the indifferent qualities of the
food, and the small and over-crowded houses. Most of the diseases common
to humanity present themselves for treatment in Korea.
[Illustration: AN IMPERIAL SUMMER HOUSE
Erected to mark the spot where the corpse of the late Queen was burned by
the Japanese.]