SCATTERED BELGIUM

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 40, 16 August 1915, Page 10

SCATTERED BELGIUM

DUTIES OF HER SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. Paul Berryer finds a pathetic inconsistency in his title of Minister of the Interior for the stricken Belgian nation, whose rule now covers a, strip of territory of about 10 miles wide and 30 miles long— out of an original total of, 18,000 square miles (states; a Paris despatch to an American paper.) The "interior" of Belgium is now a little of everywhere— in Franco, Holland and England, — wherever the civilian Belgians have found shelter. M. Berryer has not only to look after the several million exiles in. three countries, but is responsible for a civilian population of 125,000 persons crowded m what still remains intact of Belgium. One of the most difficult problems has been the prevention of the spread of disease. Notwithstanding stout resistance and innumerable subterfuges to avoid it, the authorities have forced 70,000 of these civilians to submit to vaccination against typhoid. Such systematic work has been done in this line that the typhoid has practically been conquered and the war-time death rate kept down to the normal rate of peace time, ' in spite of such handicaps as the scarcity of pure water. "When the Allies advance," as every Belgian expects them to do, tho water question will become even more serious. Water lies only a yard below the surface in the lower part of Flanders, and is all polluted. The Belgian and English sanitary departments, working together, have prepared means of analysing the water so that the presence of poisonous matter may be instantly detected. • For the supply of the army, as well as for the civilian population, it is proposed to instal large filters in boats which could follow the canals, and from which water tanks could take their supply and distribute it to the population. This formidable undertaking will require a vast organisation and a considerable outlay. M. Ben-yer has rendered probably the greatest service to his country in the looking after the war babies. Many of them, born in a manger during the confusion of retreat, are carefully sought out and placed where they may have every care. The little ones that have no controlling hand to keep them out of the streets are sent to tho Belgian schools in France, and those of families along the battle front, where a stray shell is likely to fall, are no longer allowed to take tße risks of their elders.