NOT STARVING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25852, 24 May 1945, Page 5

NOT STARVING

EUROPEAN POPULATION ENCOURAGING HEALTH FIGURES (Rec. 7 p.m.) RUGBY, May 22. Major-general Draper, chief of the public health branch at Allied headquarters, said to-day that the health of the German- people was excellent. From personal observation,* he found the Germans to be more robust and better nourished than many people he had seen in Britain. “Germany has sufficient food for 60 days,” he said. “After that there may be serious developments. The Germans certainly are not going to get more than the people of the liberated countries. “The health and nutrition conditions in Europe were not nearly so catastrophic as we expected to find them. Only the poor suffered extremely, as there was food even in occupied countries for those able to pay for it," added General Draper. Statistics did not bear out that the belief that Europe, after five years of war, was riddled with epidemics and in a state of starvation. The public health figures, indeed, were rapidly approaching the 1939 levels, which was tremendously encouraging considering the number of deaths due to violence. General Draper said Europe, with millions living under abnormal conditions, was set for a typhus epidemic of catastrophic proportions, hut this did not develop because of preventive measures. Only 7893 cases of typhus, 1500 of them in Belsen camp, were recorded in Germany after the Allies’ entry, and these were under control as the result of the liberal use of a new powder. Of millions of fighting men in Europe, only two contracted typhus, both slightly. The death rate per 1000 in France was 15.5 in 1939 and 16.9 in 1943, in Belgium 13.7 in 1939 and 13.4 in 1943.

Referring to Holland, General Draper said: “We expected to find terrible conditions there, but we did not need the special teams which stood by for action.”