ONLY FOOD FOR A MONTH.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 51, 1 March 1915, Page 5

ONLY FOOD FOR A MONTH.

BELGIAN ON DAILY RATION. Al« APPEAL TO MERCY.

SYDXEY, February 28

The: Belgian Commission has cabled ; that it .regrets that the,, failure, of the , negotiations fixing the accommodation between the belligerents whereby the Commission may carry on its work'does not alter the fact that Belgium's seven millions must be fedl The Commission docs, not propose to lay down the burden because there is no remedy actually in view. From Various-sources, the Commission has now worth of food, and it has another £l,4oo',ooo"wbfth•,;"of food en' Yet ' j .the Belgians have only enough food to i last for- a month. x ): It should be borne in mind, continues j the.Commission, that money and food are not- interchangeable in Belgium at the . present moment. The whole -population is now. on a daily ration. - Even .though the Commission had; ill. its-possession, rnijifcms of. money it-could'-not buy "one. more atom of food than could be given.to the.most destitute. . The Commission will cease to send food the instant the Germans fail to abide by; the agreement not to requisition foodstuffs. Belgium's destitute are the wards of the world. There is no solution of. the misery and hunger in the country j save charity. Having failed" to secure the ; Government's help, an: appeal is made to the individual mercy of the people in every land. .' "•: .- '. '. ; ' \ ; WHY BRITAIN FOUGHT. j - LONDOX, February 28. The Chancellor of: the Exchequer (Mr. Lloyd George), in an interview, said that the . violation of Belgium had turned • British opinion from a desire for peace to an insistence.on war. Even on the Saturday after war had been declared , powerful city financiers earnestly, hoped that Britain would be able to keep.out. By the following! Tuesday they 'favoured war. Ninety-nine per cent of the he said, would have then votedfor war. "If Germany had not invaded Belgium the Government would not have intervened. I certainly would not have been a party to the war."