Disaster hit S. Korea VOUR months of torrent-1U ial rains, floods, typhoon
and now a 73 per cent. crop failure are just some of the disasters which are this summer facinu the four million people of Pusan diocese in S. Korea.
Three million farmers who rely entirely on barley for their food supply during the months of July, August. September and October, before the rice is due to he harvested, have their food ration cut by 75 per cent . . .
Some 2,300 houses have been partly or wholly destroyed, and ;n some cases washed away. Farm land lies under water. Embankments have collapsed.
One hundred and thirty people have died. More than 35,600 people are refugees in their own land.
This is the tragic picture painted in a letter received by the CA1740Lic HERALD this week from Bishop Choi of Pusan. Writing on behalf of the 80,000 Catholics in his care. he pleads for help:
Help for families trying to stay alive in damp-soaked, flooded houses; help for farmers struggling in water-logged fields, and help for the missions, 20 of which have been completely submerged by the waters.
Thousands of victims are being lodged in school buildings and receiving some assistance from relief agencies. But, says Bishop Choi, "As bishop and as priests, it is painful to see Catholic families and their children so hungry— in some instances so close to starvation . . ."
• Assistance for the stricken people of Pusan may he sent to Bishop Choi, c/o Catholic Herald, 67 Fleet Street, London, E.C.4.