Suffering Poland.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 18, 22 January 1915, Page 5

Suffering Poland.

"A SECOND BELGIUM. HORRORS OF GERMAN INVAS Mr Stephen Graham, who ki Russia intimately, and who has versed its mighty distances on i .haws a terrible picture in The Ti of the woes of suffering Poland, w the German army has made int second Belgium. • i'h-3 condition of the peoples of land is almost as bad as that of Belgians," he writes. "There is the difference that Belgium wa prosperous and happy country start with and Poland for the n part was miserable and poverty-si ken.

POVERTY OF THE CHETTOE "When the Germans first inva Poland they gasped at the filth poverty of the Ghettoes, at the li shops where was nothing worth st ing, at the wretched houses crami with humanity but devoid of wes and luxury. They surveyed the I gad, shivering, skin-diseased, t diseased Jews with horror, and rat than loot their houses they set tk afire. In the first month of the Poland suffered more from fire s lead than from robbery. Indeed | the border frays ceased for a whj and all German attention was gi) to the Russian invasion of Eastj Prussia.

"It was only after the defeat of i Russians that Poland began to sui seriously. Everyone had been lul to confidence by the Russian advai towards Konigsberg, and when ] great retreat began no news was gh to Russia, and consequently the p suing Germans came upon many Pol towns at the most unexpected mo ent.

AWAKENED AT NIGHT. "The people, wakened up in the nil by the fire and tumult and thunder war, rushed from their beds into i streets, got into the line of fire a were killed and injured in great'nu bers. The panic was terrible. "Many thousands of people left th homes and fled, without plan, withe counsel, into the wild country. Th< at this moment are starving Poles a .Tews in, great numbers wanderi about, lost, shot at, accused of bei arrested, liable to executic Some have managed to get into trai and bave gone to the cities, of t interior. Warsaw alone has 50,0 homeless refugees, and probably eve city of Russia has at least Poles, not Jews, in its hospitable care, t sides the terrible overflow of woun ed soldiers.

WACCONS FOR LOOT. "When the Germans pursued t Russian Army back to the River N men and advanced and occupied Sout west Poland, they were bent on i They looked no longer d dainfully on the filth and poverty Poland. Orders had evidently be

given tkr.f- everything serviceable w to be removed from the country—th no rag that might give warmth o t] German soldiers in the winter cai

paign was to be left untaken. Folio ing the German army came an innui erable train of light waggons, at fii almost empty", but at last filled—j the process of taking, from her w! had nought even that which she ha At the retreat of the Germans frc the Niemen the Russian airmen i marked on the hundreds and thou ands of waggons full of stolen goo braversing the country towards G« many, like a sort of dark cloud movii over the surface of the land. Germa dead on the battlefield below Wars!! were found to be wearing the clothii of Polish peasants under their in forms. Some were found wearh Russian boots, and many carried w men's cotton shawls and flannel petl coats. TAKINC THE PEASANTS' BOOT

"In many of the villages of Polai the people have Buried their boots ai spare clothes, with their money, ai you are astonished to see the Poli' peasants going about with bare feet in straw slippers. They say that tl German soldiers come and pull ti boots off their feet to put into the foraging sacks. Alas! the Germai are as keen as terriers at findir things that have been buried, and tl pea-sants when they return to villagi forsaken a week before find that the things have all been dug up and takt away. Necessarily scarcely anyone carrying any wages. The factories ai all close] owing to the lack of coa Even in Warsaw you rarely see chimney stack with -moke issuing fro it. And time has been spared by tl Germans to ransack the warehous< of the industrial cities. An onlook< at a large sugar factory saw almo: a thousand tons of sugar removed one-horse waggons, for instance. | the town of Bzhcdin, a sweated-lab< settlement where man, woman, a$ child work all day at the sewing 1 ready-made overcoats, trousers, ax so forth, the Germans took off tl whole'stock and were as pleased : if they had won a battle. PLICHT OF THE JEWS. "It is robbery, but the sagacioi Germans disguise it as purchase, gi ing in exchange for the requisitione clothing cheques printed in Russia j language and payable by the Russia Government. It is hoped that tl Jews especially will worry the Ru by trying to get some recognitic of the losses they have sustained. Bi the Jews, much as they abhor tl Russian rule, are true to the Coven

menfc on the whole, and start no propaganda in -favor of Germany. The Germans inspire them with terror. "Atouching story is told of the Jews ■ of Augustof. The Germans came to- '•'* wards Augustof on a Saturday,-and the 1 poor Jews there are of the most pious type who do not light their fires on I the Sabbath, do no work, and certainly do not travel. All the. Christians Aed —the Jews in consternation appealed to their Rabbi for a reading of the i Holy Writ on the point. The Rabbi not only sanctioned their departure. ■'! but showed them' an example by going • first. So last of all the poor Jews ,-■• crept out with little bundles contain- •- ing what they felt they must.,take with t them—each Jewish family has something valuable in the shape of "the metal candlesticks which they ligMon ' Friday night. Then the Germans came into the town. The saddest sights in i Warsaw and Wilna and Kief are the ' clusters of poor homeless, just,., <Jouie ; ■ into the city with all that remains to • them in their hands.

GERMAN HORRORS.^ "Of those who have remained, behind or who have been overtaken by the German invasion many have' ' been killed, many maimed by the bursting of shells. Many have had their houses burned over them. Many have'been executed by the Germans as s spies. Many have died or have becomp Mazed thrbitght fright. In several towns the Germs as fixed up at the street corners corpses of well-known citizens in order to warn those who remainod behind against betrayal. . :• • "At Czestochowa the soldiers <?#: out the famous picture of the Virgin there and put a portrait of the Emperor William in the ikon-frame. Thirf is' an example of grim German pleasaMfy. They have hanged alleged spiel ©fl the roadside crosses "and peasant shrines of the highway. And they have also scattered from aeroplanes proclamations to the Poles to the effect -that the Poles should trust them. "But the Poles having r .ulen am/ing thieves nave '. ttle difficulty in deciiliug .i[)o is tn. '"the'r ne'jhoor. Rn#i<v is doing .*ll s : i> can bo le!p tins poor stricken piple."