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Show Stilwell Road-Land Route to China 683 U. S. Army Air Forces, Official GI's Find a Snack Bar, Games, and Reading Matter in Chabua's Recreation Hut U. S. Army Air Forces ground crews relax in this enlisted men's dayroom in Assam after working on their planes, destined for "over the Hump." Here Mr. Tayman noted a sign advising the men that they could take away any magazine except the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. of 2,000, small but surprisingly cosmopolitan. There were British tea growers and other commercial representatives, natives of Assam and other Provinces of India, and a scattering of Mongols, Tibetans, Burmese, and Chinese. The main street, lined with native bamboo huts and tin-roofed godowns, the tea-storage houses, parallels the railroad from Chabua, about 40 miles away. Ledo is the end of the long rail supply line from Calcutta up the Brahmaputra River Valley. The tea business is at a standstill now because the needs of war must be served first. The real business activity of Ledo has shifted to the native bazaar, covering three blocks of one of the side streets. The natives, thanks to the Ledo Road, now have more money than they've ever seen before; trading is brisk. I bought some shoe polish, paying 95 cents for a can which would have cost 10 cents in the United States. Even then I had to dicker a little. The seller asked $1.25. The variety of goods for sale is amazing. Traders come from Tibet with hides. Large quantities of manufactured goods from India are on display. Good customers are the American Negro Engineer troops and Chinese troops who came out of Burma with General Stilwell on his epic retreat in 1942. These Chinese soldiers, under American command and fed and clothed by the United States, showed an average gain in weight of 25 pounds soon after they arrived at Ledo. Trading was in British, United States, Chinese, and Indian money, but none of this currency was so sought after as Japanese invasion money once the Negro troops discovered it was for sale. So eager were these lads to buy up the worthless Japanese currency, brought into Ledo by enterprising Chinese merchants, that they were willing to pay up to $3 for a single bill. They wanted to send the money home as souvenirs. |