BEHIND THE VEIL IN GERMANY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 58, 1 December 1917, Page 14

BEHIND THE VEIL IN GERMANY

MORTALITY AMONG OLD AND YOUNG. Food scarcity is still the factor that is telling on Germany, according to the valuable authority who, from time to time, furnishes us (says the London "Daily News") with reliable information as to the conditions there. Fats, howevor, continue to reach the country friom outside—fats of a sort, at any rate. Large quantities, for instance, are obtained from the offal of animals exported from Denmark. Seemingly the offal of every beast killed in Denmark is sent to Germany.

There arc serious complaints of muddle against the food authorities, who have much to do in discovering and punishing evasions of the law. In one month in Cologne there were 882 prosecutions. Yet law-breaking continues. Cattle are driven off by night and slaughtered, and thefts of potatoes from the fields have reached such a pitch that in some districts the public are forbidden to cross the fields at night. AVell-to-do people are buying up and hoarding vegetables and fruits, while smuggling has been raise 3 to so fine an art that a number of the most fashionable restaurants in Berlin have been closed on the ground that they have illegally obtained food for sale at exorbitant prices.

Pro-German Norwegians deem it impossible for Germany to hold out through the winter. The lower classes are declared to bo on the verge of starvation. Only the strong and healthy can withstand the privations, and even they show the effects in loss of weight and vitality. Among the children and the aged mortality is great. An expelled American asserts that people drop in the streets from hunger. Clothing is so scarce that people are going about in rags. Nevertheless, our informant maintains that despite the tightening of our blockade, meat, fats, fish, and agricultural products have been poured into Germanv in large Quantities from Holland and the Scandinavian coin" tries. An officer on IvidendorfF's staff is reported to have declared that Germany would have had to surrender months iien had it not been for tho war supplies, narticularlv iron, received from Sweden. He added:—"Tf these supplies were stopped Germany would be unable to hold out after next January." Horse chestnut flour is recommended For use in bread. Turnip meal lias also been tried. Holland sends young heather, which is ground into powder and mixed with bread flour. Fodder is so scarce that in Berlin people are urged not. to work their horses ton hard. The harvest as a whole is said to bo well below the average. As to finance, the gold reserves continue to decline, the mark persists in falling, and part of the interest on the war Inans is being paid out of fresh loans. Furthermore, municipal taxation shows a steady increase.