The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-12-11
|U. s. AIRMEN IN INDIA OVERCOME FOOD PROBLEMS
BY WALTER BRIGGS United Press Staq Correspondent

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 U. s. Air Base, Northern India, (Delayed can of second- grade American pears cost SIPS at this out-of-the-way base from which U. s. airmen are operating against the Jpanese in Burma and China.
 I also paid dollar pound for sausages and a dollar a pound for peanut butter imported from the United States.
 These prices give an idea of the cost of imported foods, which often cost 500 per cent more than at home.
 Even at this Indian base, Amer ican fighters want their "chow' prepared American-style. The problem of food supply for Uncle Sam's airmen scattered over many airfiedls in the tea-raiSing country is being handled by a young lieutenant who used to be a news paper reporter, and crew of hard working enlisted men. It. John E. Uhler, Jr., Baton Rouge La, and his men sometimes workaround the clock keeping the Americans fed. Theirs is the job of finding and delivering quality grub from the markets of Calcutta, the vegetable gardens of rural India, and from the long lines of supply that dodge here and there from America.
 Raise Own Chickens American mess officers and cooks furnish the culinary touch that turns the food into the dishes the men learned to relish in the camps of Mississippi, Oklahoma or New York.
 Working with Uhler are Sgt. James Anderson, Forrest, Miss and Pvts. Antonio Bianchi, Port land, Me, Edgar J. Bayhi, New Orleans, Edwin Sifret, Marion, O., Childs J. Wheaton, Providence, R. l.. and John Hoagland, New London, Conn.
 To obtain fresh foods for daily use - known by the army as "A" rations-Uhler dispatches a truck over an 1,800-mile route twice weekly. The drivers buy all the fresh and canned goods they can find.
 A bargeful of food is purchased monthly at Calcutta, but some times it's necessary to bring in food by twin -engined transport planes from Calcutta.
 Most of the army canf9ed rations arriving from the United States are held to build up reserve supply. The quartermaster draws some foods from the British army but this is unsatisfactory because the men say that British foodstuffs taste different"
 Uhler's staff has established a butchery for animals bought from Indian contractors. Indian bakers make bread daily from American ingredients. The Americans have started to raise chickens and ducks and intend to plant truck gardens to be cultivated by Indian labor. Tea-PlanterS Co-Operate English, Scotch and Irish tea planters have been of great help in development of the American bases. Many have closed their estates in order to put thousands of their
 laborers to work building air fields, railway sidings, roads and troop shelters.
 The Americans say that the tea planters are mighty fine people. ," A middle aged Dubliner, B"~:lard J. Pierce, who closed his plantation to assist in building an airfield, fre- quently entertainS American of- ficers at afternoon tea and tennis.
 We planters are growing to like the Americans here immensely, and we get along jolly well together" :" Pierce said.
 While native women sit under the tropical sun cracking boulders by the plan.: runways, scantily clad coolies carry rock for filling in the surface, pour asphalt and roll the ground for an average of l6 cents a day wages.
 The workers are pleased with the pay because it's somewhat more than they get on the tea planta- tionS. A new wartime tire which will give 10000 miles of service If driven 1o.. %I,ax oE y1ap hp,1r coy,-