Republic Of China Hebei Famine

The disaster of HeBei provience is more serious during the period of theRepublican China than in its previous ages. Apart from the natural factorsindependent of man's will, the most important and essential reason is thesocial factors, such as the political corruption at that time, the ineffciency ofcentral and local relief mechanism, backward economy, people's inability tofight against natural calamities, and the chaos caused by war, etc. The disasterproduced a great influence on politics, economy, culture and education ofHeBei. On the one hand, it made the rural economy depressed, people lit1ed apoorer life and their ability to fight calamities was even weaker than before,on the other hand, it did great damage to the social stability and thedevelopment of cultural and education work. Both the Northern War1ordgovernment and Republican China worked out the relevant policies andmeasures in order to save from it. However, all achieved little due to theinsufficient financial resources and their irresolution. The help fromnongovernmental relief organizations and their activities, to some extent,alIeviated the disaster and had a good social effect. Under the principle ofsuiting the measures to local conditions and to time, the relief policy adoptedby the Communist Party of China Regime was to arouse the mass to action,fOllow the mass line, unite the army and the people and launch a vigorousmovement for helping themselves by engaging in production. EventuaIly thedisaster was conquered.