This has been an eternal topic in China for thousands of years. Even the central government, which is rotten to the core, must come up with a disaster relief plan when faced with large-scale natural disasters.
Throughout the ages, countless imperial dynasties have come to an end due to refugee uprisings triggered by natural disasters.
If history serves as a guide, we have to be cautious.
The nationwide floods in 1931 actually started in June and spread to the whole country in August. Not only that, some places in Sichuan, Rehe, Shaanxi, Hunan and other provinces that did not suffer from floods also encountered serious floods.
Drought and insect infestations.
This resulted in a tragic phenomenon. In the same province, one half of the province suffered from floods and the other half suffered from drought. The two sides of the world were ice and fire, leaving the people in a dilemma of life and death.
Statistics from the Nanjing National Government show that there are more than 80 million people affected by the disaster nationwide. But in fact, there are hundreds of millions of victims along the Yangtze River and Huaihe River alone. Floating corpses, starving corpses and orphans can be seen everywhere.
While Chang Kaishen is busy fighting within the party, he is also busy implementing disaster relief plans. The central government has raised funds through the issuance of public bonds, domestic and foreign fund-raising, and additional tax items. It has temporarily raised tens of millions of yuan, and (in history) the final amount of funds has been raised.
The total amount is 70 million yuan.
Although some of this money was embezzled and some was misappropriated, on the whole it was actually used for disaster relief.
There are two agencies responsible for disaster relief. One is called the Relief Committee, which is a permanent agency for disaster relief; the other is called the National Flood Relief Committee, which is a special agency for major flood relief.
Executive Yuan Vice President Song Ziwen, Interior Minister Liu Shangqing, Industry Minister Kong Xiangxi, Relief Committee Chairman Xu Shiying, and Northwest Relief Director Zhu Qinglan were appointed as members of the National Flood Relief Committee. As chairman, they are fully responsible for all regions
Disaster relief matters.
The committee has a total of seven units, namely: Investigation Unit, Finance Unit, Accounting and Audit Unit, Health and Epidemic Prevention Unit, Transportation Unit, Disaster Area Work Unit, and Liaison Unit. Generally speaking, the disaster relief organization is relatively complete and all aspects have been taken into consideration.
At the same time, the central government took into account the rampant corruption and introduced various supervision and punishment measures.
Among them, the disaster relief funds are jointly handled by the General Affairs Department, the Relief Raising Department and the Auditing Department. The three departments restrict each other and strengthen the supervision of funds. Within each department, the withdrawal of funds also has to go through three procedures. Chairman,
The secretary-general and the heads of various departments are responsible at all levels. It is really difficult to commit corruption.
For those who want to take advantage of the chaos to commit suicide, the central government has issued special punishment regulations, including those who take kickbacks, pass off inferior goods as good ones, use power for personal gain, traffic in disaster relief items, and falsely receive relief money and materials, all will be sentenced according to the criminal law with a one-third increase in intensity.
The central government was not at ease about this, and set up special inspectors to supervise civil servants and disaster relief personnel across the country, and sent 12 "imperial envoys" to visit various places. With the cooperation of local Kuomintang party departments, these "imperial envoys" severely exposed
Dealing with a group of dereliction of duty, fraud and corruption has played a role in knocking down the mountain and shaking the tiger.
In addition, the central government also has an audit office, which is responsible for reviewing the funds of government agencies at all levels and localities, and competing with those who want to commit corruption in their accounts.
In terms of social supervision, regardless of the government or private relief organizations, all funds raised must be disclosed in newspapers, and ordinary people are welcome to report illegal activities.
It's a pity that the bureaucracy in the Republic of China was so bad. With so many regulatory measures in place, corruption and fraud still emerged in endlessly.
For example, Wang Danhou, the county magistrate of a county in Hubei Province, received disaster relief funds but did not distribute them. He reported to his superiors that he had been robbed by bandits. After being exposed by the people, the county magistrate was imprisoned and his official hat was removed. There is also the Wannan Grain Station
Director Li Siyi had withheld 69 tons of disaster relief grain, and had sold 39 tons at half price when he was investigated and punished.
There are even cases of foreigners being involved in corruption. The Disaster Relief Committee appointed Gutwin, an Englishman, as the director of the Yuezhou Food Relief Station. The British man, together with deputy director Liu Yisheng, colluded with profiteers and gangsters to falsely report freight capacity to 100,000 yuan.
After dividing the stolen goods, they used prostitutes for entertainment. They also deducted the wages of disaster relief workers and embezzled hundreds of yuan every month, all of which was squandered on debauchery.
What is ridiculous is that the domestic officials in the first two cases were investigated and punished in accordance with the law, but the latter case involved foreigners, so that even the "imperial envoy" sent by the central government did not dare to take care of it, and only secretly transferred the officials involved.
We cannot deny that Chiang Kai-shek made great efforts in this disaster relief, because the nationwide floods have seriously affected his rule. But the bureaucrats everywhere are really rotten. Not only the corruption of foreigners cannot be controlled, but the corruption of senior officials is also difficult to control.
deal with.
For example, when a case broke out in northern Anhui, the relief commissioner took the lead in corruption, causing great public outrage. Due to the seriousness of the case, the Central Supervisory Office personally accepted the investigation and transferred the investigation results to the judicial department.
Then a strange scene occurred. The Central Supervisory Office personally accepted the case, and the evidence was conclusive, but the court dared to delay the decision, and in the end the case was dropped.
Such a ridiculous situation is simply because the corrupt officials have very strong backers, so strong that even Chiang Kai-shek has to give them face.
Rule of law?
It’s nothing more than human rule!
…
Song Ziwen has been exhausted mentally and physically these days. With such a serious flood, he needs to be fully responsible for disaster relief. Not only is it difficult to raise money, but what is even more difficult is food and medicine. Even if he has money, he cannot buy enough supplies.
Nanjing, Three Archways, U.S. Embassy in China.
Song Ziwen put down the signature pen in his hand, with a relieved smile on his face, shook hands with Johnson, the U.S. Minister to China, and said: "Mr. Johnson, thank you so much. The Chinese people will remember the friendship of the U.S. government."
"Help friendly countries, this is what we should do." Jason smiled.
After multiple liaisons and negotiations between the Nanjing government, the U.S. government, the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. and the U.S. Embassy in China, and after more than half a month of bargaining, Song Ziwen finally successfully signed a contract to purchase U.S. wheat. It was also a credit contract, because Song Ziwen temporarily
Unable to come up with the money, he purchased 450,000 tons of U.S. wheat on credit at one time.
Although the American minister spoke so righteously, this guy was laughing secretly. Credit is also a business, and the United States is eager to sell more agricultural products.
According to statistics from Fortune magazine, there are currently 34 million adult men, women, and children in the United States without any income, accounting for 28% of the total U.S. population. However, this report is very inaccurate because the vast rural population in the United States is not included in the statistical scope.
The Great Depression not only made life difficult for city dwellers, farmers also lived in hell.
Today, the price of wheat in the United States is only 25 cents per bushel, which is equivalent to a unit price (kilogram) of US$0.046. Well, it only costs US$4.6 to buy 200 jins of US wheat. Corn is even cheaper, 200 jins of US corn.
The value is 12 cents. Apples are sold directly by the box. A box of 200 apples, all in good condition, only costs 40 cents.
American farmers now have a net loss of US$1.50 for every acre of wheat harvested. This is still the most profitable food crop. For money-losing crops such as corn, haha, farmers directly burn corn as firewood, which is more cost-effective than selling corn to buy coal.
.
There was a rancher in Montana who took out a loan to buy a batch of bullets, killed all the livestock in two hours, and left them to rot in a ravine because the money from selling the livestock was not enough to cover the feed.
It is very cost-effective to buy land in the United States now. A quarter of the ranches in the United States are listed for sale, all at cabbage prices. Unfortunately, no one is buying them.
Both parties are very satisfied with the credit purchase contract for 450,000 tons of wheat signed by the Nanjing government and the U.S. government.
The Americans sell wheat with a unit price of US$0.046 to China at a price of US$0.1 (plus freight). The price directly doubles, and they can also clear domestic inventory. As for China, not only can it be purchased at a price far lower than domestic
You can even get wheat on credit, so you can make a lot of money.
Song Ziwen said: "Mr. Johnson, I hope your country can speed up and transport these disaster relief wheat to China as soon as possible."
Jason smiled and said: "Mr. Song, you will be able to see these wheat at the Shanghai dock within a month at the latest."
With the development of science and technology, today's fastest ships can reach Shanghai, China from the west coast of the United States in only 15 days. Coupled with the domestic transportation in the United States, a month is almost exactly the time.
However, we still need to wait another month!
Song Ziwen's heart became heavy again. There were countless telegrams urging him to pay for food every day. Now he had a headache every time he received a telegram. A month would be enough to drive him crazy!
Before he could walk out of the American embassy, the secretary suddenly came over with a telegram: "Minister, urgent call from Shanghai!"
Song Ziwen's head exploded and he asked: "Where did the disaster happen again?"
The secretary said happily: "It's food. The food for three ocean-going cargo ships was bought by Mr. Zhou Hexuan from the United States. He wants to donate it all to the Flood Relief Committee!"
Song Ziwen, who had been worrying about food for many days, felt as if he was hearing the gospel of heaven in hell. He was stunned for a long time, and suddenly laughed and said: "Zhou Mingcheng is really timely!"
