To the Editor of the "NonrH-CumvA Dary "News"
Sui—My point in addressing you today, and in particular Miss Hinder, is solely for the purposes stated herein' below. For various reasons, I would E ite that Miss Hinder and her! staff respect my identity which could traced through her files.
l-understand that Miss Hinder is not receiving the support from the community in her effort to arrive at, and to produce statistics showing the HEL, for foreigners, which the Council-had put into her capable hands I having received many requests!
various, firms asking if they had' vany figures showing the H.C.L. for foreigners.
It is a pity that Miss Hinder is not receiving this support from the! Shanghai Community, as we (it I may so say) the working class of the foreign community, have T to) gain by the establishment of the actual H.C.L. for foreigners.
Then why, why this lack of support? Obviously something is wrong or perhaps I should gay, the inconvenience and trouble encountered by
the present s of keeping re-/houséwives in conforming with coe ae dedi by Miss Hinder, not to ion frayed nerves and irritability met'by home-coming hus-! bands. For example, my wife did not complete her records the very first month, which when she very generously offered me the pleasure of doing them myself, She had no end ofctrouble with ithe cook andthe was' not going to lose him for another list as bad if not worse.
"Most families living on budget, give their cooks a fixed amount for marketing daily, and cooks, as we all know, resent being questioned. 'They' must make their usual Squeeze ari if you change your cook, it would. be the same story all over again. So, if you are aptliged with thi quality and quantity he puts on your fable, you would sooner "give vip keeping these records rather than have him walk out on you.
Why ask several hundred housewives to write down the same things They all pay for instance $5.50 per lb. for a certain brand of butter last week and $5.60 this week: so much for beef yesterday and so much today, etc, etc. Such details could be. obtained from your own paper which publishes daily the "current market prices; trid (Miss Hinder could too, obtain from several leading an otherwise storekeepers their current prices for gróceries.
riy.opinlon, Miss Hinder is "barking ùp the wrong tree," Let us suppose a family man is earning a salary of say $400 per month and has nol had an increase for several years receiving any H.C.L. allow-ange. His cost of living has not increased. He was-able to live in a nice house or apartment, could afford to buy butter, eggs, milk and good beef, ete; Now, Since one must live income, ie. $400 he up 20 cents in one week, Does that tell "Miss Hinder his HC.L? It does not, because it has not gone up. "What has really happened is that hi standard of living has gone down tremendously and for him to maintain his old standard of living, ie. butter, eggs, milk, etc, it would probably cost him. $700 or more per month. That would be the true H.C.L. for this family, Take the motor car owners and the cost. of running their cars, Gasoline used to be $1.10 per gallon, and now $260 per gallon. High cost of running (H.C.L.) increased $1.50 or 135 per cent. Your H.C.L. allowance is nly 50 per cent: you are short of per cent, therefore you cannot afford to buy gasoline, so buy a substitute and run your car on kerosene and record and inform "Miss Hinder that kerosene has increased 10 cents Poor engine, how it -will suffer.
Poor children, they have not had Milk for months now. l PF. 30. Shanghai, Feb. 14.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.