IN A STARVING TOWN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21118, 27 February 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

IN A STARVING TOWN.

ENGLISH HEROINE'S WORK. SAVING HUNGRY CHILDREN. An Englishwoman, known simply as " Miss Smith," is the heroine of Steyr, the starving Austrian town where the inhabitants lately became so desperate for food that they even ate their dogs. Miss Smith organised a corps of selfsacrificing women who did heroic things to aid the underfed, diseased, destitute children. Her work resulted in the saving of many lives, and she and her helpers were working day and night. A large number of the children of this impoverished town —whose bankruptcy was caused by the discontinuance of small aims since the war—were compelled by stern necessity to fend for themselves. Many of them for a long time were sleeping out of doors in bitterly cold weather. The result of terrible conditions was the outbreak of various diseases. Children were found in the streets in a collapsed or dying condition, and bodies were also recovered from the river. Then Miss Smith, an Englishwoman, who is stated to be a naturalised Austrian who served as a nurse with the Austrian Army in the war, came forward and organised a body of women who went, about succouring destitute children. Thev converted their homes into temporary hospitals, and there they devotedly tended hundreds of sick children, and to feed them they were, themselves going on very short commons'. " I have never seen unselfishness and devotion such as that of our Miss Smith," one ot the women helpers said. " None of lis knows much about Miss Smith, except that she has had considerable experience !l s a nurse, and is said to to a distinguished British family.