RELIEF IN BELGIUM.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15770, 11 December 1916, Page 9

RELIEF IN BELGIUM.

A MIRACLE OF

ORGANISATION."

The following circular on the subject of relief in Belgium was issued last week liy tho Hon. G. W. ltussell, Minister of Internal Affair-s:— With previous letters I have enclosed pamphlets issued by the British National Committee for Relief in Belgium, in which frequent reference is made to tho work of tho Neutral Commission. I now forward for your information a copy of Part I. of tho first annual report of the Neutral Commission itself. This valuable document, more than anything previously published, explains tho constitution, the working, and tho success of tho Neutral Commission, and tho statistics given are a sweeping vindication of the Commission against the charges that relief goods do not reach tho Belgians. It should not bo lost sight of that the Commission's work is not merely relief of tho Belgian destitute, great and noble as that task is. It's first concern is the provisioning of Belgium, tho most highly industrialised country in Europe, with a normal population of 652 per squaro mile. Belgium, for all its intensive depends, even in peace time, on foreign countries for the bulk of its foodstuffs. The occupation of her territory by an enemy who refused to support the civil population meant, therefore, not merely deprivation, but actual starvation for all but the wealthy (if indeed such a thing as wealth could exist under such circumstances), unless some organisation could be brought into existence to cope with the task of obtaining and distributing foodstuffs to 9,500,000 people. The sheer impossibility of this being dono by the Entento Allies gave birth to the Neutral Commission. How tli;< body faced difficulties, for the solution of which there was no precedent, not only overcame them all in an incredibly short space of time, but created machinery for the &uppis from abroad and distribution within the invaded territory of sufficient foodstauft's ' to keep the. population alive, and at the same time was ablo""to account for almost every pound of food through every stago of its • progress from country of origin to final distribution, is a talo so wonderful as to be incredible but for the living evidence of its truthfulness. That it should have achieved such results has earned for the Commission tho just tribute of being a miracle of organisation; that it should have carried out its operations in tho midst of tho army of occupation to the satisfaction oftho "Entente Allies, and not only •without the active opposition of the Germans, but without raising a glimmer of suspicion, is an undying tribute to its honour. Tho Provisioning Department is a vast trading concern, in which the shareholders are tho destituto of Belgium and Northern France; that is to say, those who are able buy their food, and the profits from the business go to tho Benevolent Department for tho relief of those who are destitute, and it is these latter for whom tho voluntary funds throughout tho British Empiro aro raised.

So sound has been the business working of the Provisioning Department, so ready the assistance given by the Allied Governments and allied and neutral business, hanking and commercial firms, transportation agencies, and local committees, that tho price at which many foodstuffs have been sold aJ; a profit is less than tho price in England and Holland.

It must not bo imagined from this. however, that the Neutral Commission can carry on without • further large voluntary contributions. A perusal of tho report shows that the standard of relief given, in accordance • with the means at the disposal of the Commission, is the minimum ration that will suffice to keep tho recipient alive. Any falling-off in the voluntary contributions will thus tend to reduce tho relief to such a point as to render it insufficient to provent starvation.

In a report submitted to the South Australian Government, Mi- H. H. Corbin, B.Sc. Lecturer in Forestry at the Adelaide University, deals with the seasoning and treatment with preservative liquors of timber grown in that State. It is apparent that Mr Corbin made an exhaustive investigation into the seasoning of timber, and ho says: —"Tho most important step in the substitution of quick-grown, cheap, short-lived timber for the more durable is seasoning. The Toss fitsm the shortened life of unseasoned timber is very much greater in the case of lighter and more porous timber than in the case of the heavier and denser kinds. Porosity is associated with high water contents in timber. Sapwood, which is stored with organic food material, a very suitable medium for fungi, invariably readily decays, but seasoning reduces the water contents and disintegrates the organic matter to somo extent, and reduces opportunity for decay. The fact that enormous quantities of antiseptics are' being utilised for the treatment of the more pervious timber to increase durability shows that the matter can be profitably considered in Australia. For example (the 'Hardwood Record' of Chicago says) about two-thirds of creosote used in the United States in 1913 came from oversea: most of it was manufactured in Germany. Of tho total 108,373.359 gallons of creosote used only 41.700,167 gallons were of domestic" manufacture. If America can. with profit import creosote, surely Australia can. The cost of growing pines in South Australia is relatively small compared with the cost of growing hardwood of sufficient durability as sleepers, or wood blocks, and from the fact that softwood grows 'more quickly in this State than similar timber grows in Europe the argument is in favour of local development of softwood forest and the impregnating industry. Millions of softwood sleepers and wood blocks are utilised in Great Britain after treatment with creosote. Tho financial aspect must be worked out later, when more data are available. The matter is one worthy of tho attention of the Advisory Board of Scicnco and Industr*."