"£2 OR A POUND OF BREAD."

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 251, 22 October 1919, Page 5

"£2 OR A POUND OF BREAD."

WHERE MONEY MBANS LITTLE. Riga is a difficult place to reach, says J n, social correspondent of the OailJ b Mail The twin trawled through the 1, ; ü b_ bs axd stopped before it reached | , the. station. 1 wa» landed in a field »ut- |, mv lugjr.vrc and told to shift for myself, j i; No cab-, no ,«>rters. At last a few Bus- | r plan navvies a.ppro_oh*d and surveyed , the solitan- bourgeoLs. who had ap- , 1 parentlv dropped from heaven ltt«J ,g were a' lloLlierik-looking crowd, and I, t -poke to them in flic language of diplo- , s nuicv-a little speech which induced one v of the ex-Ht'd militiamen to gather up t my belongings and to .-ondu.t mc to the ~ Hotel de Rome. Thankful f«r having reached my destination with all my belongings. 1 gave the man three roubles: the rcstilt was a torrent of indignant leproiuh. 1 asked him how much he wanted. "Twenty ost- j roubles (out- ost-rouble Ls two Crorman marks with a nominal value of two shillings) or a pound of bread." As the hotel had run out of bread I gave him iiftteen roubres. and he departed cursing 1 the oppressors of the poor. Five years j ago he would havu bleeaed mc, my children, and the next two or tihree generations for one rouble. Mono)' has lost is value here to an ex- 1 tent for-which 1 was entirely unprepared ! by my journey through Eastern Crer- * many.-w here ya-'i-oes are certainly not moderate.. A meagre lunch, consisting of a ' .up of watery- soup, two thin sjiecs iv 1 meat, a one-egg omelet, two thin slices s of bread, and a bottle of wine costs j seventy ( ~ 7 1. 1 ani lucky iv having chosen the Hotel de Home. 1 believe it is the only hotel 1 where food is still obtainable, even at an < exorbitant price. The restaurant* are 1 closed, there arc no food j.hops in this 1 famine-stricken town, and at present the 1 population suhsifits on -the rations distai- | buted by the authorities—j. small por- 1 tion of bread and one portion of thin soup per diem. ! 1 population of nearly .")00,OIX) at least : j It is estimated that of the original 180.000 have remained, and of these 1 ! 120.000 are without food or money. Even those wlith money are hardly better olf. ■The Bolsheviks confiscated ost-roubles, marks and Czarist roubles, and liooded th« place with wo.rt.hh_s Keronsky roubles and Lettish revolutionary money. Apart from their emptiness the streets look fairly normal, and the liberation has already made an enormous difference in the appearance of the public. The armed Red Mititi—iien. supposed to act as policemen, have disappeared, as have also tite gangs of bourgeois men and women driven through the streets under armed escort to dig trenches outside the ! town. I The wearing in public of a. white collar land decent clothes Ls no longer a sure I way to prison, and ladies have discarded j the shawls only worn by pesasant women lin normal times. In spite of the niilitar.y occupation, uniforms have become I less frequent: under the Bolshevik I regime everybody in possession of some kind of uniform wore it out of doors in the hope of Ix-ing taken for one of the 20,000 BoUiovik officials. ICven the joy of being delivered has not removed the gloom fixim the town, and I cine seldom sees a happy face its one I strolls through the pretty garden along 1 the old moat in the glorious spring" ' .weather. Put then, of course, hunger . I remains, and the grief for murdered . 1 friends and relatives. I A few hours after my arrival I ( j watohed a detachment of the Baltic DeI; fence Corps and Lettish troops march j past their commander-in-oJiie.f. Infantry, _ artillery, and ua-valry all gave the ini"lpreKsion of a well-disciplined force, justly elated at having dealt a very telling blow at the enemies not only of tiheir own ' country but of all mankind. 1 --—---—--

I A report by the Commissioner of Coni serration of Canada states that the il available supply of lignite and coal in 3 Canada amounts to metric ) tone. At the present rate of consump- , tion this is sufficient to supply the 21 world for several centuries. The keeping of goldfish is a great in- - stitntior. in China. The fish, arc fed on - lean pork, which is first dried in the sun an<i then reduced to powder.