The food situation has improved somewhat during the past few weeks here. Rice, corn meal, wheat pork, wine, fruit and other commodities are reaching the city in large quantities, but the prices, for many people, are quite prohibitive. Rice has reached the appalling figure of $140 per picul and it is reported that the local picul is much smaller than that used on: the plains. The poor people simply cannot afford to buy rice.
A few days ago the town crier went along the streets announcing that rice, corn meal and dzamba would be sold in the Dordra lama-serv at a much cheaper price than that sold in the shops, but the price was not very much lower—only a few cents.
Two or three years ago dzamba from the Tibetan grassland used to be æ standby when the price of rice and corn meal went up. The rise in the price of other things has naturally affected this also and now the Tibetan ground-barley is 25 cents per catty. And an ordinary workman will eat two catties of dzamba per day. Cornmeal is 35 cents per catty and rice is over 40 cents.
Charcoal, which is the fuel burned in most of the homes, is $17 per 100 catties and firewood has reached the alarming figure of 1,000 cash per catty. The local dollar changes at 25,000 cash and 25 catties of wood is not too much to burn in the cooking of three daily meals.
Over the Jedo Pass on the grassland, conditions are somewhat better. The dzamba is plentiful and there is no fuel problem as there the gentle yak provides all the necessary fuel in the shape of manure. Butter too is plentiful and this, with a heavy sheepskin, helps to keep the nomad warm. Food conditions may improve along the frontier but it hardly seems likely.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.