CORRESPONDENCE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 22 June 1915, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE

"BRITAIN WILL NOT, LET BELGIUM STARVE." (To "kk* Editor.) Sir—We have pledged our honour to restore Belgium. But Belgium is not a v/oid—it is a'peoole; and the Belgian peopie is starving. 11" we let' it perisn during the process of restoration. we si.all have grasped only the shadow of our task. • . Mr Hoover, chairman of the' .Neutral Commission for Relief in Bel-ma, and j\J i Francqui, chairman of the «.omrmttee in Brussels, tell-us that "ac least a million and a half Belgians arc now tilth ely destitute. With the ramd exhaustion of the meat and vegetable suoplies, there will probably be, before harvest time, 2,500,000 Belgians who must bo fed and clothed solely by cimnty. Iho remaining 4.500,000 will get their pitii.rt daily allowance of bread through Uio Commission and will pay for it." And they add: "Will you help us to keep the destitute alive?" ,- This neutral Commission, marvellously organised and administered, has hitherto succeeded in. just keeping abreast of the situation, raising'its iunds from America, other neutral countries, and the British colonies. But their funds are failing fast; and their needs are getting greater. It .is in response to their desperate appeal that a National Committee for Belgian relief has- now been- formed in our country, and overy pennv it collects will go Without dUtuction into the hands of the neutr.v Commission, and'through them to tlm starving Belgian people, in the form or iooa.. So° far Germany has kept her wool i e> to filch what is sent for the Bp.yi.ws-; and the organisation of relief now' makes it almost impossible for -i. German to touch one loaf of Belgian bread. The present need is for £500.000 a. month; the future need will be even greater. Uur own' exigencies are, of course, tremendous; but what would the.y not bo if Belgium had consulted ner own material needs, had just chosen to save her^lf—instead of saving the Western world * ' With Belgium complacent to the merman. Paris gone, Calais gone—it would have meant another year on to the years we mav have to fight, an extra five'hundred million pounds of money, an extra, hundred thousand lives. If ever countrv owed debt, this country owes it to Belgium, to keep the breatih in the bodies of her people. Owes it, and .must PL ln'standing to her guns, Belgium saved, of course, the whole world, for modern civilisation is built on nothing, if not on good faith and honourable obligation; 'but it is France and Britain before all that she has saved: France, however, has a terrific ta<k in the rescue of her own mined millions in the north. Thank?, perhaps, to ruined Belgium, Britain has not, may ne\»er have, to rescue and restore ruined towns and countryside. . , . o In return, -what is Britain doing? Spending money and blood like water, to drive the Germans out of Belgium? Yes ! But let us be honest. We should have had to do that in any ca*e, for our own interest. We are not thereby diV chnrtring the debts of gratitude, instiro, and humanity. ' Giving hospitality to 200,000 Belgians? It .is something, but r.ot enough. Not nearly enough! So far wo 'have not faced at all the des-

! Derate- situation of "Belgium itself; Ave have not, indeed, been" asked to. From Canada, and Australia, with one-fifth of our population, help to' the value of £150,0G0 a month has been coming in. From'" ourselves, practically nothing. But in future, all eyes are turning to -us ; it is we who are* now asked to stay the march of •death. j ' A penny of income tax in our country yield nearly three million pounds'. If "each on© of us sets aside at once one penny |"rom every pound of his income, this people is saved —this people ,move cruelly wronged than ever people were, t'his people to whom each one of us owes la debt, that we have'not realised, that ; we cannot realise in its full proportions. |lf Belgium- starves, the civilised world incurs a stain more black, than we dare to contemplate: a little country gave itself for -Civilisation", and Civilisation, having ' the means to save it, let it perish! We are* dealing .here :not with words, ideals, and what not, we are dealing with" hunger—a very simple, thirrg; if'people are not' fed, they die. jrfo' ultimate victories, vindication's,, and indemnities'are o£ the least use to Beligiaris, starving 'now. If * t>hey. are hot kept alive—on the shoulders of this ! country, the' richest country, and _ that which, has gained- most by Belgium's suffering, the reproach' will-lie heaviest. Verily it will! ' There can he no exaggeration in the tale of Belgium's trouble —for.no words can even begin to tell it as it should be told. There can be no exaggeration in the expression of gratitude for what we owe her. If those"wronged and ruined people had done nothing for us, should we grudge them enough money to spare ourselves the sight of their starvation just across the sea under our very eyes? But seeing what they are, what they have done for us—how, how can we bear to let them lack the mere sufficiency s of life? , No ! Britain will not let Belgium starve. We have not known hitherto what was needed of us in this race with death. Now we- do know. We are too' proud by far not to pay our debts. For this is a debt of honour, preceding even the charity tint begins at 'homo. The appeal of the National Committee has been issued. The hori. treasureris Mr A. Shirley Benn, 'M-.P., Trafalgar Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London. Every penny contributed goes to the Belgians in the fonrfof food. The cry of a "brave people comes across the sea. Pity, ungilded, feeds no starving bodies. Yours trulv. (Signed) JOHN GALSWORTHY. Flat Al, Adelphi Terra/be House, Robert Street, Adelphi,' London, W.C.