"GERMANY IS STARVING"

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 143, 17 June 1916, Page 13

"GERMANY IS STARVING"

EFFECTS OF A REAL BLOCKADE.

" There would appear to be no doubt that even under present conditions as established—even without fresh advances on any front—Germany is doomed."

This is a summary of the situation in the Nation. It is based upon a whole series of communications from the German Empire which tell an awful story of privation and misery : —

/"Life is not pleasant; there is nothingmore to be bought; and if there were it is so dear that it is impossible to pay for it."

" Famine is fast approaching, as you will see from enclosed newspaper cuttings. When a man has to go two day 3 without meat, one day without fat, and one day without butter in an hotel, how will the working men fare? There have been bloody riots in Berlin and its suburbs owing to the loss of life at Verdun."

" Everybody is wishing that the war would end. Food is frightfully dear, and only obtainable in small quantities." .'" It is almost impossible to keep house. We may only write, that all is well, but, this, is t.ho simple truth —dhat Genruuiy is starving. No one has the least idea of what is going on in the fighting area, but we think it must be dreadful. In thfi largo towns the distress must be terrible, bat everything must be kept secret. No newspaper may publish anything. The penalty for smuggling a Is bier is immediate death by ahootlog,"

" There is not the slightest doubt (this from a neutral visitor) that the working class is really starved —the food riots in tho cities demonstrate that." THE CRY FOR PEACE. From a small German town:—"We may not write you openly about these matters, but we think you will get this letter without its being seen. Burn it at once on receipt. All the butchers hive closed their shops. There is nothing to be got. Pigs'are also very dear. Wo have had to give up all our cooking pots, for we are very short of copper for making munitions. There is no petroleum. The women in the town are in despair. They have already all been in front of the castle, and tried tc make peace, and give us our men,back. These are sad times. There is very little butter. In the towr they have potato cards and butter cards. All the potatoes have been commandeered. Now they are floating another war loan. This is already the fourth. Gold has all been called in. We have not a single gold coin left. Rings, watches, and gold trinkets have been commandeered." "There is no question of staying. at , not because the people were dying of hunger In the streets, but because the privations have become so impossible. The hospitals of the town are full 'of civilians who have fallen ill owing to the way in which tho people have got to feed themsfives. It is now said that bread is to be made of hay." " Ask my husband to send me a, fewkronen, for I have no food to' give the children, and am begging bread from door to door." "Things are very bad here. It's only Sunday we get meat. Not a scrap during the week. Soap is beyond our means, so we have to go dirty. We cannot satisfy our hunger even with bread, for that is rationed. Boots are frightfully dear. Things get worse every day." "It's only the rich that can indulge in tea and bread and butter. The poor cajanot buy or get food. Only the big hotels can afford good meals—and they have five days without meat." "There will soon be nothing to eat here. It is difficult to manage with the money I have. The long standing to get a little butter continues. It is worse than ever, many women have fallen ill and several have died of it, from cold and insufficient food. Sometimes, when one gets desperate, she commits suicide. ' "The bread is very bad and indigestible ; it spoils the stomach and causes intestinal troubles. I wonder how much longer the 'Fatherland' will stand it." THE BRITISH BLOCKADE. "Why record such dismal events?" asks the Nation. "First because of the lies spread abroad and in this country that Germany is still triumphant, unaffected by'the war, accumulating vast stores_ for 'dumping' purposes after. the war is over, with her civil population tranquil and satisfied. Secondly, it ,js well that those who are so impatient with the great strategy of the Allies should not weaken their respective Governments by girding at all their designs as failures. "The blockade is blockading Germany. "It is said that we obtain no victories. Every twenty-four hours that the blocade is maintained is a victory. The Central Powers are girdled with steel and fire_, and the knowledge of that girdle closing in as the Russians advance, or as the Russians and British break, like the breaking of an egg, into the Eastern border of Turkey, is the knowledge which is the key to all recent German strategy.

"Without undue presumption, when all the story is told, it will be -recorded that it was the blockade of the British navy which finally beat, Germany to her knees."