PRICE RACKET

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 October 1943, Page 4

PRICE RACKET

AS MUCH AS SCARCITY OF FOOD RESPONSIBLE FOR DEATHS IN BENGAL. ACTING GOVERNOR'S DECLARATION. (By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright) CALCUTTA. October 9. A price racket, based on the scarcity of food, had been killing the people as much as the scarcity itself, said the Acting-Governor of Bengal, Sir Thomas Rutherford, in a broadcast. During a visit to rural areas, he said, he had seen rice for sale in almost every market in the 24 districts and grocers apparently had plenty of other food and grains for sale. The price demanded, however, meant that the poor had m sell their bits of land or housenox possessions to pay for it. “Cannot some form of social prcssuie be applied to stop this sin against humanity?" he asked. “When Bengal s winter rice comes in our troubles will be ended.” MUCH SUFFERING AND DEATH RATE STILL HIGH. DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS IN CALCUTTA. (Receiver This Day, 9.45 a.m.) LONDON, October 10 There are fewer beggars in the streets of Calcutta than several weeks ago, but additional thousands arc now too weak to drag themselves about publicily, reports Reuter’s Calcutta correspondent. The hospitals, wrnch are taking in the weak and destitute are overcrowded, and the death rate throughout the city is now about thiee times the normal rate, 527 persons having died in the city hospitals during the week ended on October 7. Free kitchens in the province are feeding about 1,350,000 people. Doctors say they have seen more suffering in the last month than in the last twenty years.