EMPTY RICE POT.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 219, 15 September 1924, Page 7

EMPTY RICE POT.

MAY MEAN A RESTLESS EAST. EXPERT ISSUES WARNING. EFFECT OX AUSTRALASIA. You can put anything in the way of !delicacies from caviare downwards in front of a true Oriental and he will j still turn to his rice, and if he hasn't enough rice what is going to happen? Among the delegates to the recent Pan-Pncifie Conference at Honolulu was : Dr. Cramer, head of the Acricultuial ' |and Food Bureau in -lava, and accord- j I ing to what Sir Joseph l.'arruthers. ex- j ] Premier of New .South Wales, told a ! ("Star' reporter on the "Makura this : i morning, the revelations of the doctor I were one of the outstanding things at the big gathering. He told us a lot J about a matter on which many of us were singularly ignorant. said Sir Joseph, and informed us that rice was the food of a thousand million per>ple in the Kast and other parts, and that there was likely to be a serious shortage, arising from the fact that the labour which we talk about as being "'abundant" was goinj to be short. The reason of the shortage oi labour to cultivate the rice was due to the fact that labour was attracted to more remunerative fields. "With more remunerative employment the workman had more money to spend on food, and the singular trjng to Western minds is that that being so the workman instead of spending it on bread or some other forms of food, wishes for nothing better than ; his beloved rice. If he had enough i money to buy a pound of rice before he took up more remunerative work, he | would buy two pounds when he got b?tter pay. Rice was the habitual food | of the East and they would not change, i If they did not there wis no telling , what effect this rice snortage might have. There are bound to be difficulties when the shortage of food becomes act.i.e. If there be anything like a famine in these Eastern countries the people are going to cause trouble; the people will want to blame the trouble on something or somebody. They will | be saying that their countries are overcrowded, and they will want to take some of the land in countries that are not over-crowded. You can see how vitally that may affect Australia and other countries that cannot be called overcrowded."