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- Dear Overseas Chinese,
We have long heard about you, but have no chance to meet you owing to the long distance between us separated by the sea and mountains. It is now spring time, warm weather is approaching, we are hereby sending our best regards to you. Ours is a charitable organization. We do benevolent deeds for others with no benefit to ourselves. Since 1895 plague has run wild across Guangzhou area, the heartland of South China. People died from illness and starvation. The rich tried to run away, but the poor had no money to see a doctor. Out of the Da Bei Gate of Guangzhou is the rural area of hundreds of villages where the soil is infertile and the villagers are poor. They have no medical care, and no one to help them. Seeing this we tried to raise funds to hire doctors and build temporary clinics around to take care of them. This is the origin out of which we established our organization. Our Ming Shan Tang is built outside the Da Bei Gate to give free medical care to the poor people. It has been a few years, and everything is going well. Unexpectedly the price of rice has gone up rapidly since spring this year, the poor people are suffering from starvation. We can not bear to stand idly by. We put up shelters to cook rice porridge to feed the poor, and send rice to those who can not come because of sickness and disability. Every day there are thousands of poor people coming to each shelter. It costs over $100 at each shelter. We do not have so much rice in store, we find it hard to carry on. Now it is the time when the crop is still in the blade and the old stock is all consumed. It is a few months away for the early season rice to go on the market. Therefore we have to seek help from overseas Chinese. We attach herewith five copies of Contribution Account Book for you perusal. We know you care a great deal of the fellow Chinese in China, and sincerely hope that you can contribute to aid relief of the famine, and help invite contributions from all the people who are willing to. One more life is saved if one more dollar is contributed. Please wire the contribution money to Pu An Company in Hong Kong, who will forward to us. We shall make Commendation Book to bestow praise on your benevolence act.
Many thanks and best regards
Yours sincerely
Ming Shan Tang in Guangzhou
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