The Flood Relief Of The Changjiang And Huai River Valley In 1931

This paper's aim is to elaborate the function of the relief at national politics, by the description of the Changjiang and Huai river valley flood disaster relief, also by detailedly introducing the huge function of the Civil power in this relief , It studies the relation of the nation and the society in the relief The flood disaster in 1931 was the very serious disaster in the republic history. The flood disaster spread 16 provinces, 8 provinces were particularly serious, including Jiangsu Province, Anhui Province, Jiangxi Province, Hubei Province, Hunan Province, Henan Province, Zhejiang Province, Shandong Province, The area affected by the flood was equal to that of British Scotch all or New York state in the United States, the people who Suffered the flood disaster were 25 million peoples, equal to all total amount of the farmer in American. According to The authorities statistics, the number of drown were about 14 million peoples, the actual number may be more. It was an eventful period in 1931. The political situation was turbulent in the country. It was fierce Struggle to in faction inside the Kuomintang.Chiang Kai-shek had not given up strangling the Communist Party of China all the time. Japanese imperialism looked with covetously eyes in the foreign, the wild ambition of annexing China had been already abundantly clear. Whether this flood relief was done properly or not, will affect the stability of national regime directly. So the national government of Nanjing set up special relief organization –the National Flood Relief Commission, which was the supreme relief organization. The government had issued a large number of regulations providing disaster relief. It adopted the scientific methods to collect the disaster information, and carried on the positive financial preparation, sent the special messengers to carry on the disaster area to work, including to the urgent relief,the labor relief, the agriculture relief , the medical epidemic prevention。The various division of labor was meticulous, making the certain effect. But there was something that should be pointed out: the national government often was Unable to do what one wished in the face of the serious disaster. At this moment, social forces took action actively, fully arousing private strength, calling upon extensively, raising the relief fund, going to the disaster area to relieve in person actively, playing an extremely important role in the providing disaster relief. The social forces included newspaper, association of fellow provincials, charity etc. As the modern new developing circulation way, newspaper had the characteristics that the influence was great; the result was obvious in the respect of contributing money and propagating the disaster。Through the extensive propaganda of the newspaper, the various circles of society had raised a large amount of relief fund. Association of fellow provincials was continuity of geographical reason traditional succors. In the face of the flood, they thought about the disaster-stricken fellow villager, they called upon the government, society actively, raised fund too at the same time, Shanghai was the most developed place of the industry and commerce at that time in China, it was the place where numerous charities gathered too. Shanghai Flood Urgent Relief Commission, Jiangsu Famine Relief Commission, China International Famine Relief Commission raised funds f actively to relieve for flood, relieve urgently for the disaster area.The government adopted the common and cooperative principle extensively in this floods relief, the National Flood Relief Commission set up the contact group in order to combine more persons together,the government official held the head of the folk charity at the same time. The national government had issued the decrees of encouraging handling relief in order to arouse the enthusiasm of relief groups, so it had stimulated people to participate in relieving from system. In task allocation, the folk organizations participate in the work extensively, such as the urgent relief, the labor relief, the agricultural relief, the medical epidemic prevention, etc. As regards responsible area, the government and the folk had adopted Cooperating in the dividing area, which have guaranteed to relieve the maximization of the range. The cooperation in this flood relief between the country and the society produced the good interdynamic relation, promoted the harmony of the disaster relief work. The heads of the government organs hold the leaders of these folks at the same time, many persons in the folk took on government's government post. This assured folk relief's activity to go on smoothly; meanwhile, the folk permeated through government's administrative affairs gradually, which had shared the power of governments. The government and the folk regarded succoring the victims of the disaster as the central task, having implemented the cooperation of the cooperating type. In the relief course, the government had adopted the folk experience, having made the remarkable result. The urgent relief, the labor relief, the agricultural relief, the medical epidemic prevention in this flood relief had made the good result, established the foundation of rebuilding. The urgent relief benefited 269 counties,benefited people were 5 million. According to the reports of some provinces, during the gruel factories were running, victim of the disaster persons were from 204,000 to 220,000 every day. The labor relief of 18 districts, did not exceed in order to resist 1931 floods, repaired the main dike, adopted methods that provided work as a form of relief, accommodated calamity workers of 1,100,000 in all, in addition, workers of calamity relieved the persons who lived by them indirectly directly, for example their wives and children, the number of people was above ten million to receive benefits. In the agricultural relief, by 1932, the cooperative society had already expanded to 8 provinces at least, and the quantity of the cooperative society increased progressively year by year in every province. The persons of the debit and credit sides were up to 360,000 .The method of agricultural loan received the attention of the national government, and then developed into the rural cooperative transformation sport of the thirties finally. In the disaster relief, there were 344,800 people to be cured, and 2,157,800 people to be inoculated vaccinated. But we should point out the defect in this relief at the same time. First of all, the relief funds used in the disaster relief were seriously insufficient. Secondly, government official's corruption gave a great discount in result in the relief. Third, the specialized persons who provided disaster relief were scarce. Fourth, the unity of the groups lacked. All of them reflected the disaster relief imperfection. The perfection of relief system needed social system's perfection, technological perfection of aspect was not enough. The society relief is the first level in the social security. The social security will develop into the social welfare, social insurance gradually. The research of the past relief system can use history as a guide and mirror, perfecting the...