FAMINE DEATH-RATE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 310, 11 October 1943, Page 4

FAMINE DEATH-RATE.

THRICE NORMAL IN CALCUTTA. (Rec. 9.45 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 10. There are now fewer beggars in the streets of Calcutta than there were several weeks ago, hut the traditional thousands are now too weak to drag themselves about publicly, reports Reuter’s correspondent at Calcutta. The hospitals which are taking in the sick and the destitute are overcrowded, and the death - rate throughout the city is about three times the normal rate, 527 persons having died in city hospitals during the week ended on Thursday. Free kitchens- in the province are feeding about 1,350,000. The doctors say they have seen more suffering in the last month than in the last 20 years.

“A price racket based on the scarcity of food has been killing people as much as the scarcity itself,” said the Acting - Governor of Bengal* (Sir Thomas Rutherford), in a broadcast address during a visit to the rural areas. Pie said he had seen rice for sale in almost every market in the 24 districts and the grocers, apparently had plenty of other food and grains for sale. The price demanded, however, meant that the poor had to sell their hits of land or household possessions to pay for il. “Cannot, some form of social pressure be applied to stop this sin against humanity?” asked Sir Thomas Rutherford. “When Bengal’s winter rice comes in our troubles will be ended,”