Show I Europe's Little People People 1946 1946 I French People Will Feel Fee Effect I Of War for Many Years to Come Gome ComeBy By PAULINE FREDERICK I n Correspondent I It PARIS PARIS P It will take France a long time to get enough I leather to walk on clothes to wear fuel to heat her houses i and food for her tables And it will take her children who I have been growing up without enough vitamins and cod liver oil and oranges and milk a long time to develop the sturdy bodies they will need to face the years ahead in this part of o othe f the world The enemy has gone from France but there is still a great battle to be won at home homo I was never never more aware of the thc I everyday living problems that con con- confront confront confront front the average French rench l family than when I went to visit a home in Paris which is experiencing many of the typical troubles of o the day It was bright and cold so I was wearing my heavy lined field coat over my GI Gh slacks and blouse The car stopped In front of a modest stone front flush lush with the sidewalk I was ushered through a hallway crowded with a baby carriage and anda a heavy dark chest As I entered the living room I might have been going into the room of a modest American home simple but comfortable com com- comfortable comfortable maple furniture landscape I watercolors on the walls maga maga- magazines on the table and books in the bookcase ool ol n ase e. e But the thing thin that hat tg c the thc room from that of Amer American scan lean homes which I knew was that as ns I talked with the pretty dark dark- I eyed hostess our breaths were plainly visible In my heavy I was shivering Why didn't this gracious Frenchwoman French Frenchwoman woman light a 0 fire or turn up the heat hent There was one compelling reason She and her hr family had only enough fuel to keep one room of the whole house moderately warm for six weeks between 10 o'clock in the morning and 5 o'clock In the afternoon And there were not only the father and mother In that family but three little children aswell as asI I well aged ngod 2 7 T and 11 The middle child was threatened I with tuberculosis which has become one of at the postwar prices France is paying Three children who have i known the deprivation of ot war years because their parents were not wealthy enough to pay black mar I ket prices and also because their mother happened to be ba a Jewess Even now the mother was selling one thing after arter another to get money to buy what she had to have for forthe forthe forthe the mere existence of her family family- her fur tur coat the little bit of jewelry she had some furniture rugs The chest in the hall was to be next This Is not an unusual story in France today It can be repeated over and over again Of O course there are modifications I dined ina in ina a French farm house where there was meat and cheese and whipped cream on the table from the farms farm's resources and trees that had been cut down on the broad acres sur surrounding surrounding rounding 11 ls t tv t beat Bat Bs even even so ao the p little little boy DOY of the house walked stiff legged on his wooden soles and looked the thin high colored age of four instead of his seven years because he hc had nev nev- never never er had vitamins and cod liver oil all alland and orange juice But Dut back to the Family Jacques in Paris as they shall be known for tor they requested they remain Today the official prices for basic commodities in France are per percent percent percent cent higher than the 1939 rates while black market prices have soared to per cent above the prewar cost of living Under these intolerable financial conditions which have not been alleviated by bythe bythe bythe the devaluation of the franc because prices have gone up and with the scarcity of the essential items of food tood especially bread and pota pota- potatoes potatoes toes which make up 60 00 per cent of the French diet Madame Jacques Is able to give her family only be be- between between tween 1300 and 1400 calories a day I Germans In the American zone are permitted 1500 calories for the average consumer with more for the pregnant mother and heavy work work- ers Moreover in the American sec sector tor of Berlin housewives who take I care of two or more persons who are too young or unable to work have had their rations increased i from 1500 calories to 1601 The I American army feeds teeds Its men be be- between tween and 1000 calories a day Ordinarily the Jacques family eats three pounds of ot bread a day for forI I six ta la a maid lives with them But Dut 1 the new ration has been reduced I with adults getting a little over a aI aI I half pound a day The children get I milk when milk Is available I but only one half or three-fourths three I litre each cacho Butter Dutter and fat are almost non existent except as friends from fromI I the country countr bring them In There has been no fruit for the children 1 I They have had about two pounds 1 of tangerines since the war ended I i but have never seen bananas Last I II winter there were only carrots and leeks leeks but this winter there was a II III I little salad alad and spinach The meat ration is about third one-third pound a 1 week for tor each person I know there are many people worse than we we she said I have an uncle in New York who helps us from time to time 4 |