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254 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