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NO. RM.
PERTH, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1944.
PRICE TER
SEVENTY-FIRST YEAR.
1..:PRE011.
Rich Hoard Rice While Poor Starve s inside story DE the Indian A harrowing picture of the food fam, ine in India-of rich moneylenders with stores filled with rice which they will at a high price, while .not sell, except thousands of poor people die of starvation-is given in the following letter to "The Advocate" from Rev. John A. Morrison, Si.,, Catholic Mission, Poreya Hat, P.O., Santal Parganas, India. Father Morrison writes to thank readers who have responded to his appeal for assistance in his difficult mission.
He writes: "The price of food began going very high about a year ago. It was partly due to poor crops in places, partly due to the fact that rice could not be brought in from Burma as usual, and partly due to hoarding. When those who had rice saw the turn that things were taking they refused to sell, in the hope that they could get still higher And, as a result, prices later on. the suffering of the poor has been intense.
Fabulous Prices. "Bengal, the province to the east of There ,,s, has been very badly hit. thousands have died of starvation. This but off, district has not been as badly things were made harder by local people sending away the rice they had, to sell it at fabulous prices elsewhere. People have gone hungry here while rich moneylenders had their storehouses filled with rice that they would not sell, except at prices that average men could not afford. For a time there was danger that looting might break out. Fortunately, it did not, though some would have received small sympathy, The lying if they had been looted. subterfuges that some moneylenders their rice, save resorted to, in order to while the poor went hungry, would have been comical-if they had not been tragic. If they loved God as much as they love money they would be saints. "Lots and lots of water has flowed down the Ganges since I wrote my last news letter," continues Father Morri"India and Patna Mission were son. spared an invasion when the Japs stopped on the Indian -Burmese frontier. Last year's civil disobedience campaign, the sky-rocketing of prices and this year's acute food shortage have figured largely in the news. We can thank God that the invasion didn't reach of us, and though we felt the results the civil disobedience campaign, and scarcity, and are feeling the high prices for we have a great deal to be tharkful and our work is still going ahead, if slowly.
Heartlessness of Moneylenders
amine
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An Exchange of Tyrannies
"The Russian Revolution is too near to us to say, with any conviction, whether it has profited the Russian The Russian did not people or not. exchange an intolerable bondage for a democratic system. They exchanged one ruthless autocracy for another, the exclusive authority of the Czars for the exclusive authority of the $o viet State. Has it profited them, are they happier, man for man and woman for woman? I did not think so, in the little I saw of Soviet Russia, nor did any impartial assessor I knew, who had lived long in Russia. This war has shown that the fighting love of the Russians for their native acres is unconquerable; but that they always had, even under the most implacable of the tyrants "What I mill most emphatically say is that the regime born of that Revolution is not 'the rule of the people' This is a widespread delusion, that springs say that alligators and kangaroos can from the common confusion of the Crawling Killers. "Snakes are creatures that we have give powerful blows with their tails, terms 'the State,' and 'the people.' always with us, and not long ago the but the tail of a scorpion is not far be- Many unthinking people in this coun victim of a deadly krait was brought to hind when it comes to causing damage. try, because they do not trouble to picPoreya Hat. A Santal woman, the ture to themselves how a theory would Carrying On. mother of nine children, the youngest appear in practice, assume, for instance, only one month old, got up very early "In spite of the high cost of living that if the coalmines or the railways in the morning when it was still dark and the fact that I have had to raise were 'nationalised,' made the property and put her hand on the bamboo door the salaries of my catechists and teach- of 'the State,' they would becviiie the In ers," he concludes, "our actual mission of her thatched house to open it. property of 'the people,' that Jack the darkness she didn't see the dead- work is going ahead. Our village Robinson, travelling third-class to town ly snake coiled around the door post schools are still carrying on, and we in the nine-fifteen, would be able to Others still tour our district and have the and it bit her on the finger. say to himself, 'Well, at all events, this killed the snake, but they took the Holy Sacrifice and administer the Sac- train belongs to me.' woman to a sorcerer and they brought raments as usual in the thatched "I do assure them, they are wrong. her to Poreya only when his magic fail- chapels and mud houses of our Santal 'The State' is not a benevolent, whiteShe was dead when villages. ed to cure her. is extremely difficult bearded old gentleman, at present sitIt They brought the though to make both ends meet, and ting on some cloud and waiting to she reached here. snake, too, the same kind that I killed any help that you may be able to send be fetched dawn to earth. 'The State' on my verandah last summer and keep will be doubly appreciated now. If is Mr. Theobald Pension, who lives next pickled in spirits as proof of, at least, you send it for me to: Rev. Calvert door to Jack Robinson, a man whose 962 one snake story. Missions," S.J., "Jesuit Alexander, ambition is to sit at an official desk, City, with a pile of forms before him, dressMadison -avenue, New York And Near Mrs. U.S.A., it will reach me safely. And ed in a litle brief authority, and there "And a few days ago a young woman Mass stipends are always welcome. to thwart and harass and bully his felwas brought here in a state of collapse Thanks, and God bless you. low -citizens by every means in his She had due to a scorpion sting. power, which is unlimited. 'The State' "JOHN A. MORRISON, S.J." been stung on the foot and I thought is officialdom, the implacable enemy of at first that she might die. The perhuman freedom and dignity. 'The spiration simply poured off her and dials, great and petty, far more im- all is that great army of exclusivb her heart was very badly affected beat- mune, immutable and immovable than State' and exempt and privileged and mutts. ing something like a very slow and very be can THEY our present rulers. back -scratching officials which Ins erratic telegraph ticker. After work- curbed or spurred, abased or elevated ally already have multiplied by a thousand. in on her for several hours we finally people." the by 'The State' is not the community of all brought her around. Scorpion stings -Douglas Reed, in "All Our To- citizens, all of equal rights and duties. are always very painful but they seldom 'The State' is a new ruling class of orb. bring a person to such a state. They morrows." .
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