THE WAR REFUGEES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16737, 18 December 1914, Page 3

THE WAR REFUGEES.

interesting visit to headquarters.

GUESTS OF, THE GOVERNMENT.

• (From a Lady Correspondent.) , LONDON, October 11. By the courtesy of tho medical superintendent the writer was .enabled to spend an afternoon: this week at Alexandra Palace, the Crystal Palace or North London, which has boon taken over by the British Government as the olearing house for tho Belgian and other refugees who have fleu to i-nis country. Within the past few weeks no fewer than twenty-one thousand persons have been allotted to the hospitality of towns and individuals from here and at the time of tho fall o* Antwerp no fewer than four thousand wiere actually accommodated at one time. . . Tho Palace stands on a hill and is enclosed in very fine grounds, but grey autumn mist enveloped it while 1 was there and fow of tho refugees were to be temptod out of doors, so that one had a capital opportunity of inspecting them in the groiips in which they naturally gather inside. • Men are, of course, in the minority, but there are thousands of women, nearly all with children, end only the wonderful organisation of the place saves it from being an utter bedlam. Tho ouly regulations are those necessary for keeping the immense foreign family safe and well, and they are made to feel from morning till night, that they are the guests of the British. In recognition of this, and because of the fact that the Palace bouses what >s really a moving population, .it is found advisable not to call on even the peasants to take their share of the housework, cooking, etc., that has to be cone; another important consideration being the fact that the average Belgian notion of housekeeping is not such ns would usefully cope with tho dimensions of tho present crisis. A staff of fifty bed-makers is employed, and also ten nurses who are kept busy all day bathing and tending io children, while numbers of voluntary workers give valuable work' in many directions. Some of the departments have necessarily-to be so gigantic that they almost overwhelm the casual visitor. All London, for instance, seems to havo sent its old clothes to show its welcome to the Belgian unfortunates and while one large staff of helpers unpacks these, another hand,sorts them out and yet others take charge of thorn in their -proper departments. Temporary hoardings, for example, have been erected in one of the courts to make men’s, women’s and children’s outfitting rooms, and here-something like the system of a shop (without any money .transaction) is in vogue , the majority of tho refugees having only the clothes in, which they came over. In the men’s and boys’ room the writer came on an eloquent picture. Two buxom little Belginn nuns in white habits and palo grey veils were trying to find an overcoat to fit a small boy th" while one found, evidently, great difficulty in concentrating her attention on the youth for horror at a. burly old Belgian beside her who could not sntisfv himself at the fit of the trousers offered him without measuring them beside himself and looking as if, at any moment, he might try them on. A small hospital has been fitted up in a beautiful littlo theatre upstates, but fortunately there has not been very much illness. One pathetic case that I noted was that of • a young Belgian girl whose baby was horn, at Edmon* ton Workhouse very shortly after she arrived, but who had joined the refugees at the Palace a few days before I saw her, though even then the new arrival was only twelve days old and tho mother looked’ shockingly fragile. She waa leaving the next, morning to stay with some relatives in England. ' 1. - - • I . V A GENUINE WELCOME. . ' Most of tho refugees arrive in largo parties fairly late at night naturally worn out with their voyage and experiences, and these find a practical welcome awaiting them in the shape of a plentiful meal, after which they go at once 1 to bed, no questions being- asked until the next day. When that arrives each fills, in a card supplied to him hr her giving particulars as to their' name,. occupation and town, and stating whether or not they have been vaocinated, the last query being considered by the authorities a- useful guide in case an epidemic should at any time break out. Most of the refugees at Alexandra Palace are of the peasant class, though there are also a sm>ll ’ proportion of gently bom Belgians and Frenchwomen to whom a dining-room and club-rooin have been specially allotted. A visit.to the kitchen u;as of great interest to a New Zealander, for actually, a very , capable gld Belgian chef and four kitchen helpers manage the entire cooking for this enormous gathering ; such a state of perfection being made possible by the wonderful laboursavors that have been lent, a really valuable assistance since the only available space for a kitchen is a very large cellar. There L, for instance, a machine that cleans vegetables, another that pares them, and yet another that cuts them up, while a sausage machine and coffee grinders are fiercesomo looking monsters, twenty times the size of the ones most of us know.

The whole place was spotless and redolent of a pleasant smell,of coffee, the favourite beverage of the Belgians, who, it was interesting to hear, do not take sugar with it, nor indeed >apparently with any of their food save chocolate, which is the drink the children ike. Jam, strangely enough, they like .hough very little butter, and salt is idded to most things in actual handfuls, though the medical superintendent pointed out to me that they do not seem to experience any, excessive thirst. Rice soup is a great favourite rf both grown-ups and children, and is much as five hundred, gallons in one lay has been made in this kitchen. At be time of my visit,eighty gallons of ,'hocolate had been made for tho children’s breakfast, and hot milk, then boiling in a gigantic cauldron, for their upper. Breakfast is at eight each day. dinner at twelve, and supper at six,' tho mothers being expected to go to bed with their children- at lialr-pnst seven, as Alexandra Palace lias a glass roof, and the same regulations as to light, in this time when semi-darkness lias been ordained, apply to ibis as to all other places which would prove guides to Zeppelins if they ever do appear.

Another VOl7 large department is the storeroom, where the bundles brought over by tho refugees are kept for them, a receipt and number .being riven to each owner. Before being put xway every package is. examined, the stale food which nearly each contains and dirty clothes being burned, and tho latter replaced by clean ones. The eyes which the peasants cast on English fashions must often cause a o- o od leal of amusement to the helpers. ° On uo consideration whatever, for example has a Belgian woman, however poor,’ been persuaded to wear a short coat' their one idea of decency in these garments evidently requiring them to be at least three-quarter length! None of the women wear hats, and all do their hair, which is generally bronzebrown and very luxuriant-, in a coil on the top of their heads.. All of those who possess them wear shawls.

The general atmosphere of the pl uce is very un-English and genial in each individual or. group of peasants salutes one, ivhereyer met. with a smiling “I3on jour, madame,” just as one remembers them in the . fields of their own unhappy country.