H.E. the Governor presided this evening [November 29] at a huge meeting held in the Town Hall [in Bombay] to draw attention to the need for co-operation in the measures for the relief of distress through famine conditions in the presidency and made an important speech on the subject. He began by expressing his thanks for the help which the citizens of Bombay had constantly given him during His Governorship and proceeded to appeal for voluntary help to assist the Government in protecting the lives and health of poorer citizen in the crisis now to be faced through the failure of rains. He then read extracts from a statement prepared for him showing in detail the state of affairs throughout the presidency and the measures taken to meet the conditions so far as they have already developed. They showed the well to do conditions of the people as the result of the high prices realised by their produce during recent years so that there were yet no signs of distress and all attempt to open test works had been failures, while it was still difficult to attract labour to the existing ordinary works. While the present condition of the people does not therefore give rise to anxiety, the same cannot be said regarding agricultural stock and elaborate measures have already had to be taken to provide them with Government fodder. His Excellency mentioned the special steps taken to improve both food and fodder supply showing among other things that 97 thousand tons of Burma rice had already been secured for sale at controlled prices.
