THE EASTERN BENGAL CYCLONE

To The Editor Of The Statesman

SIR, – In The Statesman of November 21 a letter appeared over the signature of the Rev. W.D. Millar stating that a month after the cyclone in no part of the district of Khulna was Rangoon rice being sold in the local market. Whether Rangoon rice was or was not being sold in the two thanas mentioned by Mr. Millar at the time of his visit, it is not correct to infer that no Rangoon rice was then reaching the interior of the district. There were large stocks of controlled rice in Khulna at the time and purchases were being freely made by merchants from these stocks for sale within the district. Controlled rice includes purchases made at the beginning by the District Board which are being taken over by Government. As regards the statement that gratuitous relief in rice was insufficient at a certain time in the Kadambi Union in the Rampal thana, inquiries have been initiated; but at present supplies are ample.

A.J. DASH.

District Magistrate, Khulna.

DACCA DISTRICT BOARD

To The Editor Of The Statesman

SIR, – I find, I was a bit hasty, in my last letter to you on the subject of the prescription of text-books in the Dacca District Board, and much truth there is in the old saying – many a slip between cup and lip. In each District Board there is a Sub-Committee, called the Education Committee, entrusted with the educational side of the activities of the Board. Prescription of text-books for the Board Schools is one of their duties. The Educational Committee of the Dacca District Board resolved on the curious resolution of having only one text-book for a subject, as explained in my first letter to you. It was subsequently approved at a meeting of the Board. A copy of the resolution was forwarded to the District Deputy Inspector and he was requested to suggest appropriate text-books accordingly, in consultation with other Deputy Inspectors of the District.

A WELL-WISHER.

Dacca.

A WORD ON LAND SPECULATION

To The Editor Of The Statesman

SIR, – One of the rumours that has helped to further the house and land boom in Calcutta has been the notion that a Council Chamber is to be erected on a certain site in Dalhousie Square. The result has been that our friendly alien residents have put the screw on, Marwari and Bengali have added their bit, tenants become flustered and few remember that the same sort of thing happened in Egypt ten years ago and many people were ruined. One Calcutta magnate was reputed to have dropped over six hundred thousand pounds over the boom in the land of plagues. The same thing happened in Rangoon a few years back when rents and values bounded sky high; the subsequent slump hit a lot of people very hard indeed. It occurs to me to make a suggestion for the site of a Council Chamber, should the Government decide to build one.

H.H. Calcutta.