DESTITUTES FLOCK TO CALCUTTA

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 16, 14 October 1943, Page 5

DESTITUTES FLOCK TO CALCUTTA

Graver Position Reported

RELIEF SUPPLIES MAY BE

INSUFFICIENT

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Received October 13, 7.5 p.m.)

LONDON, October 12

“It is claimed here that there, is too much over-dramatization of the famine, but from what I have seen it would be impossible to go anywhere in the Empire's second city and avoid the horrors of starvation,” says the Calcutta correspondent of the "Daily Express.” He adds: "This is only Calcutta; throughout. Bengal there are 1,000,000 others whose plight is as bad or worse. , , “The situation does not need dramatization. Tens of thousands of people congregate at tlie city's feeding centres, and many never leave the vicinity, sleeping and dying in the streets nearby. 1 visited today one of the largest centres 1 1 a city park, where 1000 women and children squatted, the men being segregated. Huge bins of stew were carried to Lie various groups and doled out by volunteer helpers. Some mothers greedily took portion of tlie children’s snare before passing on the bowl. “Children in a sickly condition and babies in arms are given a pint ot milk, but several I watched were too weak to swallow. Every bed in the medical wards of the large Campbell Hospital is tub to overcrowded. The medical staff has been working for weeks without r ®st; “Calcutta food experts doubt whether the acquisition of 250,000 tons of gram from outside sources will be anywhere near sufficient to feed the population ot Bengal till the crops are cut three mouths hence. The situation meanwhile is deteriorating daily, with area after area listed as recording the complete disappearance of rice. Jhe influx of deslitutes into Calcutta seems unabating. Problem of Shipping. In a statement on the food position in India, specially in Bengal, made in the House of Commons, the Secretary ot State for India, Mr. Amery said that at the beginning of tlie year the British Government provided the necessary .slnpniiw for substantial imports ot grain to India to meet the prospects of a serious shortage, which was subsequently reiicied by an excellent spring .harvest in northern India, states British Official WireeS“Siuce the recrudescence of the shortage. in an acute form we . have made every effort to provide shipping, and considerable quantities of rood glams are now arriving or are due to arrive before the end of the year, he.said. We also have been able to help in the supply ot milk and food for the children. “The problem, as tar as help hom here is concerned, is entirely one of shippin,, and has been judged in the light of all the other urgent needs ol the United Nations.” '