The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-02-11

gle in a manner that would be 'al- most too neat, if 1t weren't for the official reports themselves, which give the key to the whole situation.
 First there was the announce ment from Tokio that rice is to be rationed to the Japanese people. Food books are to be issued, Man ual laborerS will get a large ra- ton, but the bowl of rice that everyone gets will be definitely limited
 Then, while the, Japanese were fixing up a peace between Thai land and French Indo-C China they also made. little deal of their own with Indo-C China, and the first item in that agreement pro vided that .4 Japan would have a virtual monopoly of Indo-China rice.
 PEOPLE DON'T LIKE
 INDO- CHINA RICE
 With that trick taken, it might appear that Japan would have no further worry about a food supply, but here's the kicker. The Japanese people didn't, like Indo- China rice. 6 ,>>..
 There are, of course, dozens of varieties of rice, but in general they classify as hard grain and soft grain. The Japanase like the hard grain variety, which they raise themselves and which is also raised in Chosen (Korea) whose surplus is imported by Japan. Last year, however, rice corps in both Japan and Chosen weren't so good. To make up the short age, the Japanese food ministry tried to enforce ruling that 20 per cent Indo-China rice should be mixed with 80 per cent Jap- anese rice, just to give everybody enough. But 1ndo-C China rice is soft grain. It cooks faster than Japanese rice and goes mushy if cooked too long. There was a family tempest in every rice pot in Japan. If the housewife cooked for the Indo- China rice, the Jap anese rice wasn't done. If she cooked for the harder Japanese rice, the Indo- China grains went into paste. For a time, things were in such state that the gov- ernment tried mixture with 10 to 20 per cent wheat, but the peo- pie wouldn't accept it.
 The result of all this has been that the price of rice has dou- bled, from 1883 to 1940, the high for last year being 43 yen for koku. A yen is 27 cents and koku is five and an eighth bushels, and any slide rule should figure that out at about g a bushel. Chicago wheat now being around soc, and the Japanese incomes being what they are, you can figure it out that things aren't SO good.
 On top of that there is an acute farm labor shortage in Japan, there is a shortage of fertilizer, and crop reports are so low that some belief can be given the idea that the rice farmers are simply holding out on the government purchasing agent. Normally, Ja- pan poduces 60 per cent of her rice consumption, the balance coming from Chosen and Taiwan island.
 HIGH U. S. COSTS
 CUT PRODUCTION
 The world balance of rice there fore becomes an important economic factor in maintaining stability. Nearly two thirds of the worlds population can be classifieds as rice eating, and more than half is in the most clensely populated areas = India, Netherlands East Indies, China, Japan, Thailadn ,Indo- China, Ma lava, and the myriad islands Of the Pacific. And while the aver age per capita rice consumption in the United States is about five pounds year, in the Orient it runs to 300 pounds per person per pear - nearly pound a day.
 Indo- China and Thailand are the two largest rice exporting countries. If there is any world rice market capital, 1t is Saigon. Scattered local production over vast areas prevents there being any rice kings or rice monopolies Japan, however, by her one bold stroke tn Indo-C China has come as close to cornering the world rice market as is possible, and if she can further exert her influence over rice exports of Thailand, hundreds of millions of people in rice Importing countries next year will be wondering where they're going to get enough to eat.
 Take Netherlands East Indies, with 65,000, 900 people, more densely populated on some islands than Japan, and always forced to import rice. What Japan may not be able to win by argument in concessions from the Dutch, she might win by shutting off the rice suply from Indo China. It's as simple as that.
 Take our own Philippines and Guam and Hawaii, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, which strangely enough don't begin to grow enough rice for their own brown brother populations.
 All Latin America consumes quantities of rice. Brazil has stepped up lately as rice pro- ducer. Louisiana, Arkansas, Tex as and California are principal rice producing states in the U. S., but higher production costs limit their markets.
 Invaded China, which should be suffering from rice shortage, isn't, It's the Jap armies who need rice most. and that explains the grab