CHINESE BUSY ON A NEW CHUNGKING

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23695, 21 July 1942, Page 4

CHINESE BUSY ON A NEW CHUNGKING

CHINA AT WAR

(By GUENTHER STEIN in tl CHUNGKING (China). May 2. Seven months of slow but steady construction work, uninterrupted by any major Japanese air raids, have seen yet another Chungking arise out of the shambles which was this provisional capital last summer. - The quality of the present office buildings, shops, and dwellings is somewhat inferior to that of last spring, just as the reconstruction efforts during the first reconstruction winter of 1939-40 gave rise to a more primitive city than the original Chungking had been before the first “bombing season. But Cabinet Ministers and generals got accustomed to living in roughly repaired houses with a minimum oi comfort and to working in makeshift offices. f The ordinary officials think little oi camping with their families in little bamboo and mud-thatched roof bungalows, or, if unmarried, in bare ana crowded dormitories. They work and some of them even sleep in half-dilapidated office buildings or office shacks of the most primitive kind, and the masses of Chungking’s ponulation were never used to much better living quarters than they have now. Rise In Prices Serious The high and ever rising cost of living is a more serious problem to all those who are not themselves responsible for the rise of prices and profiting from it. It may still be said that nobody in Chungking or elsewhere iri Free China is starving, for the Government has taken steps intended to enable everybody to buy sufficient rice at prices varying from two United States cents a pound for Government officials and eight cents a pound for about one-half of the city s population who are holding special permits, to 16 American cents a pound for people who have to buy rice m the free market. , But the prices of most other foodstuffs are unaffected by price-control measures, and they have risen so much that many have had to reduce their consumption. > - During the last two months,wheat flour has risen 100 per cent; to 22 American cents a pound; pork 33 per cent, to 44 cents a pound; beef 43 per cent, to 33 American cents a pound; sugar 122 per cent, to 50 American cents a pound; salt 35 per cent to' 17 cents a pound; vegetable oil 80 per cent, to 50 cents a pound; lard 75 per cent, to 78 cents a pound; and green vegetables 60 per cent, to five. Amen*, can cents a pound, I Goods and Incomes _ • , The high prices of manufactured goods are weighing even heavier on the people, whose purchases have long been restricted to the barest minimum. Since early February the price increase of matches was 71 per cent.;, df cotton cloth 50 pier cent.--to one dollar 40 cents a yard Tor low quality blue material; of washing soap and household paper 67 per cent., and , many things which either sold at fabulous prices or were unobtainable. A comparison of these high prices with a few typical income figures will show what they mean to the bulk of consumers.

re “Christian Science Monitor.’’) The salaries of Government officials, including allowances, but leaving out" of account the fact that many have - to pay no rent, range from about 20* dollars to less than 100 dollars a month, the latter being the income of Cabinet Ministers. Salaries of bank officials ' are somewhat higher, the monthly wages of coolies who have to buy their ; rice at higher prices than Government officials are between 16 dollars 1 and 30 dollars a month, while some ; skilled workers may earn as much as ■. 50 dollars a month. The war has levelled kne standards of living of different .Asses of the population to a considMUable extent, and this is probably one of the main ’ reasons "why there is less dissatisfac- . tion than one might expect. Even the reasonably small class of war profiteers finds it difficult to make a show of its large gains, and there are few persons in the streets whom one could , easily pick out from more or less ill. clad crowds as well-to-do. ' j Buses Overcrowded t One of the major inconveniences of i Chungking is the transportation problem. The noisy, smelling, Diesel- ’ driven buses are few and hopelessly overcrowded. There is not a single taxi and only the highest officials and ■ few private citizens still have motor- f cars. Rides in the jerky old rickshas . are getting exceedingly expensive. > Distances, in Chungking are great , because the city is built on the long, ; narrow, extremely hilly ridge of a . peninsula between the Yangtse and'; Chialing rivers, and the streets are 1 either dusty when it is dry or muddy i when it rains. Moreover, most of ; Chungking’s recent considerable, |. growth has taken place either on the « hills of the Yangtse south bank, in-o’ volving disagreeable ferry .crossings and steep climbs for commuter, or in | far-off suburbs in the country, where ) almost all Government departments | are maintaining; their less important j offices. , . t The transportation problem makes ,t. many persons forget that Qhungking 1 has but few Chinese theatres and,i ! i cinemas and a rather undeveloped i social life. The number of radio sets, •{ sold at fabulous prices, is small, and ? it is said that in the whole of Chung- I king there are fewer than 20 pianos, i Most persons spend their, evenings quietly with their families or friends, - r There is a shortage of good reading ' s matter. Single sheet newspapers, of which about 10 are competing with each other in Chungking, contain-little ; but the standard issue of international-• and domestic news of the Central News Agency, and a few political articles; Ilie choice of magazines and , books is relatively small. Many individual and other libraries have been destroyed in the . bombings and. the .imports of foreign booloS r and i6th*r3publications have virtually ceased withal! the loss of Hong Kong and Rangoon;! Yet -it would be wrong to think the people of Chungking are unhappyl; or depressed. Most, of them'are notsL because they have plenty of work andJ plenty of hope for the future and benefitf rom* that fundamentallypatlnnt'i and optimistic attitude of mind is characteristic of the Chinese. "M't