1941-09-20 — Page 5

Second Section.

Hongkong Telegraph.

Magazine Feature

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1941.

These pictures were made on the day the communal kitchen was opened. Look from left to right, down the page, and then from right to left, and you will have a pretty good idea how it is operated. There was a large crowd waiting for the place to open when the photographer arrived, as seen in the first picture. The next photo shows the people paying for their meal, They are handed tickets which they exchange for their rice. The next two pictures-

CHEAP

RICE

FOR THE POOR

The Equitable Rice Sales Fund Committee, which recently played a large part in curbing rice profiteering, has taken another step towards the relief of poverty and ill-health in the Colony by opening this week the first communal kitchen in Hongkong, in the basement of Wanchai Market.

was

Large crowds of the poorest classes, attracted by the colourful posters on the walls of the Market, jammed the entrances and lined the wire. enclosed kitchen in which the rice

being boiled. The rice was cooked in the market in great cauldrons four feet across, using oil fuel, The kitchen has a staff of 12 people, includ- ing cooks, servants and ticket clerks. On the first day, 154 catties of rice was provided. Two kinds of rice are offered-white rice and unpolished '("cargo") rice. The prices are three cents for cargo rice and sung, and three cents for white

rice but one cent extra for the sang, which are - varied each day,

The customers bring their own bowls but there is no difficulty about different sizes because cach portion consists of a scoopful, so that big or small basins all get the same quantity.

It is hoped that the experiment will prove successful and will justify extension to other. parts of the Colony. It is also hoped, if the scheme succeeds, to provide more sung. so as to offer a balanced meal, for at present the amount provided is little more than a taste:

The kitchen is open daily from 7.30 a.m. to 10.30 am, and from 4.30 to 7 p.m.

The suggestion is made to the public that they patronise and assist the undertaking by buying books of tickets at four cents each. These they can give to beggars instead of, ús nt present, banding them money.

-show rice and "sung" being prepared in large cauldrons. In the picture at the lower right hand corner of the page, you see an attendant ladling out rice for a boy, while the next picture shows antoher attendant supplying the "sung" to a street sleeper. The photographer also made a picture as he left, and caught the two young fellows you see in the last picture taking their filled bowls away.

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