INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

AND PRESS CRITICISJI. 171
any further explanation, scarcely required the
words "semi-starvation" to be added. And
the abuses found out were not subjects for a
telegram, unless, after representation, they were
persisted in. The very fact of the correspondent's
having telegraphed them, more than anything
else shows the spirit in which he approached
the subject at that period I say at that period ;
because, on the whole, I consider that this correspondent's
criticisms were honest, and when
he came to understand something of the difficulties
besetting famine operations he made due
allowance. As illustrative of this fact, besides
corroborating the foregoing remarks, I make the
following extracts from a letter of this correspondent,
dated 8th April: "It is true that it
cannot be said they" (the work-people) "are
very highly paid. The tariff of the Seerah circle
I found to be one anna a-day for a man with a
hoe, five-sixths of an anna for a man or woman
with a basket; for a person without a basket
two-thirds, and for a child half an anna. At
first sight these would seem • semi-starvation'
wages, when it is mentioned that the price of
rice in the bazaars has for Bome time been