Evening star., 1942-12-21
Third Of a Series
Ev LELAND STnAHL

Bv LELAND STOWE.
in the old days precious and semi
precious stones could be picked I'd
~ bargain prices in Rsugoon. Then
the Flying Tigers Of the AVG moved
IN and soon the prices for rubies.
star sapph5res, moonstones and ali
the rest had doubled. trfpled-and
cuadrupled. That was easv. The
HindUS and all the other local rner-
chants were quick 10 recognize fat
s0c careless customers when they
S2w them. Those deyil-may care
american flyers we're literally lousy
with dough" "
Since Burma I've been watching
The same process all across India.
end Iran and Iraq and Egypt; and
Gown across Africa to the Gold
Coast. and finally, I'D the Brazilian
coast as well. The American soldier
Is the highest-paid as well as the
heSt-fed soldier anywhere in this
war. Wherever he goes he reaches
into his well-padded hip pocket and.
with all the best intentions in the
world sends prices skyrocketing right
and left The Yank sees a carved
mahogany elephant or an exotic
silver bracelet for his girl back home
and nine times out Of 10 he pays
the price asked,
Dollars Tossed to Wind.
Pvt jerks from JenkintoWn has
no idea that he's an answer 10 the
prayers Of Moslem, Egyptian. Per
sian and dozens Of other varieties of
merchants He's got plenty of
money, and nothing much exciting
70 spend it on--so what? The re-
suits are things which Pvt. jerks
has little time TO consider and even
Jess advance instruction to weigh
them for what they are and what
they mean. 1t even appears that
Washington has not yet taken these
results into consideration. Here are
some of them.
!. Millions of dollars from Ameri-
can soldiers pay are being thrown
to the winds every month-simply
because our boys have no concep-
ton of the tourist" mentality of
rative shopkeepers.
2. The effect of the influx of Amer
team troops-and of American srend-
ing on name the price and III
take it scale--tends to boost the
cost of living radically in most big
population centers abroad
Good will Threatened.
!. Inevitably, with their fatter
wallets Yankee officers and soldiers
Gre able to eat better than the men
Of our Allies forces can-and this
privileged position often threatens
good will
4. Finally. huge amount of
American money literally is being
Easted every millions of
collars paid out for articles which
should cost no more than one
fourth the price.
If soldiers stationed abroad had
10 or 20 per cent of their earnings
paid into an account in the United
States, the economy and price levels
n foreign countries would be much
more stable during the war-and our
own American economy would bene-
1T tremendously afterward. Con-
E.der little incidents like these which
ere being duplicated countless times
every day, from the Canal Zone to
the Solomon Islands and from Brazil
10 Bombay and Running, China.
AT Khartoum a vendor was dis
playing tiny carved ivory elephants
and camels. How much?" l asked,
The vendor said boldly, Five dol
lars I knew that 81 would have
Eeen fair price, Even as l turned
away newly arrived ground crew
boy was forking over crisp IS bill,
with no questions asked.
Market Called Ruined"
The next day, ON an airfield in
Northern Nigeria, an RAF ferry pilot
climbed aboard our plane with
bundle OF leopard skins, You see
this one?" he said to me, It's
nice skin, all right Before your
American chaps began coming
through here we used to buy a skin
ike that for half a pound or less
Now the natives stick us f2ls
for them. They won't sell them
for less because they know the
Americans will pay almost any
thing they ask Your chaps ruin
the market for the rest of us"
In Cairo a British officer. just
down from Palestine, gave me an
other slant on the problem, An
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