Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, SEPT. 17, 1920. EUROPE'S SCOURGE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15321, 17 September 1920, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, SEPT. 17, 1920. EUROPE'S SCOURGE.

At one time there were writers jvhc* proclaimed that the -korld's populiation was growing to such an extent tfrit there were, reasonable grounds for anxiety •■ lest the capacity of the earth would no£ -he y suffio3ent.t(j.6upport'. the people upon rty but m recent years V>- : ar . and* its tsv'ih, scourges of farrtiiW arid pestilence Uaycy taken such a toft \©f human ylif?;- that these fears have .noW.no possible justly fication. The depletioif*-.of populations in Europe during, the war Xj^nY into ■matt}'; millions, 'and lack; of, nourishment since; hostilities ceased has beeif , responsible for an abnormal death , rate 3& severaof the Central' European states.;^aninus; fe how raging iri China? where* abyord-iij-g to cable ndvices, millions nior<e .• of the earth's iriliabitants are IMrihg-, 'on, ; &* c verge of sr^rvation. Then there is alSk. other, de-populating factor^ at work in* the shape of tbe typhus epidemic w.hKJ-*i is spreading through Europe, moving; westward out of Poland, silently and inevitably like deadly black tumes borne on . the breeze. Doctors, says : : a- July/ dispatch from Warsavr, are dying m the fight to .'keep the scdurge m check, but it keeps moving steadily towards Germany and France, ' and 'already ; . the typhus rash has broken out ' m Hbllaildj» ; first cases. Tlie League of Nations isappealing for ££,000,000 to throw' 'its e Very resource into the fight" to stop- itl The League of lied > Cross ii sending broadcast a heart-broken cry for men aiid'nioney and medicine. TII.O American.; Typhus Expedition of tho United = States Army, operating V- i** Poland, lias advised Washington that • the. matter, .should be placed lYafe : ontnv under ah international conunission, of medical otlicers from " England, the : United States, France, and'lta'rj*, with complete powers arid 'a free handK And seven private relief 'bodies iri $ah?a*w • are* sending their appeala'. but to a -vdri'l 1 tteaiy tof .appealsYandiaccUst^mpa-to tlfe sight ;<if de-id 'bodies. -The typhus Jasmin Poland arid Galieia, .'writes* 'a*.' -'eow»* spbnderit, ,| is jbemgY-slbwly ■ pressed >bacjs, and .modern Europe now lies actrialhm the slmHow o| another ißlaqtc Death' such as once swept thediaeval' Europe.' I Complete statistics are not ' avaiteblt", but the following. for.Polhnd'aud Galieia •vvill show how . silently and swiftly' ep*- • vn?I lv ty P hus is rolling up.-the. -the hdrizbri? , 1916, ,54,352 cases reported ; 1917-*. 43,840 .'cnaes; 191,8, 97,032 cases • 1919, 231,260 cases; .. January and February, 1920; 46,500 cases reported!.. These/figui-es' .do ■ nofe- mcludb - those for* Podolia, Volhyiiia and White Russia, whej*e the 'scohrge has feached yfar greater YaevbritV. .Poland, iif threatened with the wbrs'; .typhus fever epidemic m the; histoiyb? the world, which unless phetkedY wil? prove a danger, that: will threaten the whole of Europe." .; Sueh»is= the .report of Colonel -Gilchrist, head of theiAmeri* can Typhus Expedition, to the Government at Washmgtori.y "The Government of Poland,^ he adds,, "is fully: alive t<» tlie duties; incumbent 'on, it in viW "xsi the seriousness of the-' present epidenm ; but cannot conceal its, inability to'-^pf. with tho grave situation which Ss*' developing^ for .lack bf= financial resource^ and sufficient sanitafv "supplies m tlie present, overwhelming emergency." For -fr F aV V i rep t^ te ' the epidemic has been^devetopipg,, with Yedcli year showing a.ste«^dily, rising, d&ith rate. By this fames: it is rasing alon^.the^ entire east front from- Tarhopol on : the, ttortb to Bovszezow m the south. "From there it is spreading throughout Poland moving along the channels through which refugees and returning war prisoner!" nic flowing from Russia and tbe Ukv^ I f-y^or Russia, the Poles say/ i« 1 HtoL? cm * VOh ' of , >the P%«e A.pW,WX> cases numbered m an utterly unparalle e d medical disaster, and with dead bodies piled m. heap, at the Soviet U^ 3^l $ a^it burial. Tins is the sort of tragedy which is ,bein„ played, not 111 Kamchatka or Trmbuifiunope, m country which a few ; years a^asY^en t^ commerce and toW £*% large ihd&foou.s h& ' ? ' fKVm^to*.- The plague is hfcfe to ., be even . W*se this autumn and lact. the Poles say, that over 1,000,000 gp? v ßtll VY w ?%.to cross . Z Russo-Polish frontier: ' A string V S^^f. B^ 9 " B^^ stretched along the- frontier, bat they are wholly madequate to meet the calls on, them. Ilm result is that -streams of these i-e---fugees trickle continuously Across the without medicaLinspection, S - y into Eastern Galjcia, and the erim I Lr>^, sh f a ac? c of f^ ods '» sdu{e uJ} A Ge^f Eur °P Pa»e a» couritries>tnV lessened vitality of the peopfo, males the menace^much more serious. andvS vibb than it otherwise would & ciSS im b nter i 8 So^P^hJ^ extiemelv hard one n Europe aiid unless effective stens (> an bH^en^S Invent .the sp^ad of tlio tfel?