BELGIAN REFUGEES IN HOLLAND.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 10 December 1914, Page 5

BELGIAN REFUGEES IN HOLLAND.

THEIR MISERIES DESCRIBED. LONDON, Dec. 9. Sir Gilbert Parker, on behalf of- the American Relief Commission, visited Holland, which has done all possible for Belgian municipalities. There is only food for the next week or fortnight, with barely one-third of a soldier's ration for each inhabitant,daily. Sir Gilbert Parker describes the necessarily cheerless, ill-ventilated quarters, which are sheds furnished with straw, and a few blankets, where men, women and children are huddled promiscuously.

c misery shows its worst conditkxis a* Rottei'dam, where' refugees are sheltered . in irou liters, which are fireless && miiit for homes for cattle. He gives, ax fa\ 'rtreild-»g picture of the refugee- Gauaa^fc &* various Dutch centres. The normal! ragx^. lflments are 300,000 tons of food per r»O3v. *-"» a.nd the Agricultural Commission v. ' appealing for \ 80,000 tons. There is \, 3SS than one- I halt of a soldier's raiic n "f01" each Belgian.