RISK OF DISEASE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21809, 4 September 1945, Page 3

RISK OF DISEASE

JAPANESE CIVILIANS MALNUTRITION RIFE DANGER TO U.S. FORCES (10 a.m.) NEW YORK, Sept. 3. Brigadier-General George Rice, a surgeon of the American Eighth Army, said that army doctors feared a severe winter in Japan with a strong danger of a higher disease rate as a result of cold and malnutrition. Since this would not only affect the Japanese civilian population but several hundred thousand Americans who will be stationed in the metropolitan area by this time, General Rice said he believed the United States would furnish relief to civilians if malnutrition became acute.

Tuberculosis and dysentery had Increased in recent months. The civilians still received only one-fifth of the rations allowed to Japanese soldiers. Agricultural production had been greatly reduced as a result of war ravages. The army medical administration had already asked for 70 to 80 field hospitals on Honshu for civilian patients. Another Eighth Army staff officer said that plans had been made for limited relief supplies for civilians. The plans had been formulated on the ground that the Japanese seemed able to provide for the troops and hence they could take care of the civilians. Army doctors have discovered that the Japanese pumped water in from the mountains, but it contains only onetenth part of chlorine to 1,000,000 gallons, whereas . the United States standard is one part of chlorine. The Japanese explained thy chlorine made the water smell, and added that they did not have a large supply of chlorine. The army has asked the Japanese to bring the chlorine content to American, standards. Wherever the army finds the situation a menace to the health, of the troops, it will take steps to improve the situation.