DEEPEST POVERTY

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 4, 29 September 1944, Page 6

DEEPEST POVERTY

Conditions In Holland (Received September 2"J, 12.5 a.in.) LONDON, September 2b. “Tile Dutch have suffered more under the German occupation than any other people iu westeru Europe,” says a Britiyh United Press correspondent at Kindhovcu. “We have found worse poverty here, in what should be one of the richest countries in the world, than anywhere else since the Allies invaded North Africa two years ago. Some of Holland’s best families have eked out: a miserable existence for four years on cabbages and turnips, chopping up their cherished old furniture to make tires. France and Belgium have suffered, but they do not compare with Holland. “The facts are beginning to emerge now that the. Allies are settling down after the liberation of roughly 2500 square miles of Dutch countryside. We came across rich farms in France bursting with fresh food, but there was poverty in some places. We found sharper contrast in Belgium, but in both we have been startled bv occasional glimpses of luxury, with silk stockings, perfumes and tobacco available in abundance. Holland was different. There is not enough food ami no fuel, and luxury items have been forgotten. ’l'bere have been no suits or dresses in the shops for at least two years, and these things are not even available through the black market.”