Famine in East Bengal

WE are afraid that the acuteness of the situation in East Bengal has not been fully realised by the public at large. The slump in the jute market, the failure of the winter rice crop for want of timely rain, and the premature and excessive rains in May and June have all intensified the suffering caused by high prices and unemployment. The condition of Tipperah has already been referred to in these columns. But the distress in parts of Noakhali is said to be so acute that in some villages nearly three-fourths of the people are believed to be famishing. Unemployment is also said to have driven people to petty crime, and pathetic accounts are published of kitchens being stealthily entered by some famishing people to get at cooked food.