RAGGED, BUT DEFIANT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14667, 26 July 1918, Page 5

RAGGED, BUT DEFIANT.

BELGIANS OF LIEGE SCOFF AT THE GERMANS. „ , A glimpse of the 'spirit /of Belgium after three and a half years of '.Ger-. man occupation is given by a doctor who has' escaped from the Liege district. He said:— ) "I have spoken to thousands .of -work-' men. Most of them have thpir feet wrapped m rags for lack of socks. They wear wooden shoes, repaired m many places, and 1 are without .shirts under tlieir tattered coats, but they laugh at the idea of a German offensive.. "Tlie misery is such that is has' become almost impossiblo to prescribe any mepi«ine•' besides, about half the drugs^ have hecorne unobtainnV l^ r money, the Germans forbidding all imports*. A small bottle of cod liver. ojl, for instance, costs 16s. There is great scarcity of milk for the babies^ m spite of the efforts made by such organisations as tlie 'Drop of Milk.' : In Liege alone 1700 children ' aro tubercular., Bacon costs 15s a pound. AH the neces r . saries of life have attained exorbitant prices. A reel of cotton costs 8&, and a pint of pai'iffin 6s. The spirit pi self-sacrifice of the population is admirable/ Speaking of the Germans m tlie troop trains on the way' to the French front, Belgian workmen said to the doctor: "Wo shall riot see them again ; they'll all bass through the same mill." Tlie neople' of'Liegd have never wavered m their fa'ithiir victory. They make a joke of their own miseivy, and . if the Boche grumbles, they' rejoice, thinking tlr.it if ho shows ill-temper : t is because things are going badly "for him.