3-065-835 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Famine in Bengal: loading grain-carts near Calcutta, 1874. 'The daily telegrams from Calcutta report increased distress in several districts of Behar, north of the Ganges, but few deaths from actual starvation have yet been reported. There are nearly 1,250,000 persons receiving pay on the public works, and 116,000 others receiving charitable relief. The "circle system," established by Sir Richard Temple, is stated by him to be working in a satisfactory manner. The quantity of grain dispatched by the Government from Calcutta to the afflicted districts of the country was nearly 250,000 tons up to the end of last week. There was a difficulty in getting transport, from disease among the bullocks, and 3000 bullock-carts had been kept waiting ten days. The Mansion House fund for the relief of the distress in India now amounts to £85,000. A donation of £500 has been sent to the Lord Mayor by the Earl of Derby. The Committee have sent another remittance of £20,000 to Calcutta, making £80,000 already sent from London'. The relief effort - organized by Sir Richard Temple, the newly appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal - was one of the success stories of the famine relief in British India; there was little or no mortality during the famine. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.