Evening star., 1944-10-21

81 fdRS.D
preston that things were not sc
bad after all. We did not realize,
think, how narrow is the line that
separates those times from these.
Red Cross Plugged Gap.
Many an Athenian family is open
ing its last tin can today. and al
though the first relief shipload /.
scheduled for unloading tomorrow
FRIDAY, October 20, butter will be
spread very thin for a long time to
come.
One thing alone counts for the
difference between what we see here
now and what we would have seen
two or three years ago-the work OF
the Red Cross.
Although there is considerable
criticism here of the manner in
which this relief was administered
it can be stated categorically that
If 1t had not been for Red Cross
food aid-chief1y in the form OF
cereals-most Of the population
would De Oead TO-DAY.
One of the great ironies of the
situation is that If you have a lot
Of the right kind of money and do
not mind spending it, you can live
better in Athens now than you can
in most European cities.
There are restaurants here. where
for fantastic prices. you can eat as
we'll as you can anywhere in the
world. There are shops, charging
equally fantastic prices, where you
can buy fine jewelry or perfumes or
clothes or books or whatever YOU
want-if you have enough of the
right kind of money.
But, except insofar as the merest
handful of the population is con-
cerned, all this might just as well
not be here.
The only people who are not
destitute today are those who had
their money all along in some form
of foreign currency, such as the
gold pound. The former rich, who
had drachmas, are completely wiped
out-many of them have been re-
duced to trading things. like pianos
for a bushel of grain.
Wages Don't Keep Up.
1t might reasonably be supposed
that the poor, dependent on a daily
wage, would have Jared better, COM
speaking. This, however,
Is not the case. Wages have shown
no tendency to keep abreast of the
astronomical price increases.
The daily wage of an ordinary
workingman in Athens today is
somewhere around $4,000, 900 900
drachmas. But compare this figure
to a few Of yesterdays prices.
Sample prices, by the pound
were:
Herbs. 5000 900 900; black bread
1000, 900, 900; white bread, 19O00,-
600 900; grapes, 5000 O00, 900; to-
matoes. 25,000. 900 900; macaroni, 65.-
000, 900, 600; olive oil, 10000, 900 900.
One egg cost IS ,O00, ,O0O, 900 drach-
mas, and for 10000 ,OO0, 900 drachmas
you could go to the movies.
If, therefore, the average worker
wanted to spend all his wage on
food, which is a hard thing to do,
he would be able to buy, for ex-
ample, pound of black bread, a
pound of herbs and one egg. His
family can hardly be expected to
grow fat.
Even with food from the Red
Cross added, the average mans diet
is not impressive.
The Greek government estimates
that the Greek diet has been one
of about 1900 calories a day. A
good workingman's diet should pro-
vide about 2,400 calories.
Yesterday asked 10 people in the
street when was the last time they
had eaten meat. The most for
tunate was the man who had meat
last May. The worst was an old
woman who said she had not had
meat since sometime in 1941.
Most Of them said the last time
they had eaten meat was last
Christmas. All Of them hoped to
have It again this Christmas.