TO LIVE IN BELGIUM.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 May 1916, Page 7

TO LIVE IN BELGIUM.

WHAT IT REALLY MEANS. A., remarkable interview with a representative of the Rockefeller Foundation, reprinted from the leading English newspapers of February 29, l'fllti. "There would be wholesale starvation within three or four weeks if the importation of food into Belgium were stopped."

That ic, the carefully considered opinion of Mr. F. C. Walcott, a well-known American, who has arrived in London from Belgium, where he went at the request of the Rockefeller Foundation to investigate the work of the Neutral Commission for Relief, of which Mr. Herbert Hoover is Chairman. The Rockefeller Foundation—the most richly endowed philanthropic institution in the United States—before contributing any further sums for the benefit of the seven million civilians in that part of Belgium occupied by the Germans, desired an independent report from their own representative. The German authorities allowed Mr. Walcott to go wherever he liked, and under these exceptional circumstances he spent three weeks visiting the more thickly populated districts in Belgiurfi and Northern France.

Mr. Walcott has now reported to the Rockefeller Foundation that he was much impressed with the efficiency of tli relief work. Pie lias recommonded that any money intended for the people in Belgium should be entrusted to the Neutral. Commission. The British National Committee for Relief in Belgium, of which the Lord Mayor of London is Chairman, works, with the approval of His Majesty's Government, in co-opera-tion with Mr. Hoover's Neutral Commission.

"If any of tliose who cavil at sending relief supplies into Belgium could only visit Belgium," said Mr. Walcott yesterday, "and could see personally the plight of tlie suffering people, tliey would come back as eager for the continuance of this relief work as I now am.

"It is difficult for anyoue getting three ample meals a day, with plenty of fuel in the house, and living even in moderate luxury, to comprehend what it means suddenly to be reduced to existing on one meal a day.

WAITING IN THE RAIN FOR FOOD. "That one meal in Belgium consists of 800 grammes of bread—which is the equivalent of three medium-sized breakfast rolls or three thick slices of bread—and one half-liter—approximately one pint—of soup, made, chiefly from vegetables. ,Of the seven millions in Belgium Jtreo millions are practically des. titute, and they have to .stand in line from one to three hours a day for this pittance of food. The depots for distribution are generally, only large enough to accommodate between 30 and 50 people $t a time, so long queues of the hungry extend into the street for a hundred yards or more. Most of those who wait are so poor that they have no protection, in the shape of an umbrella or a thick coat, against the discomfort of stormy, days. "In the cities of Belgium I have recently seen thousands of people lined up hi the snow, or rain-soaked and chilly, waiting for bread and soup. I have returned to some of the distributing stations at the end of the day and have often found many men, women and children, still standing in line, but as the doors were then closed, ihey were compelled to go back to theiv pitiful homes, cold, wet and miserable. It was not until IS weary hours afterwards that tliey got the meal they missed. "Almost one-half of the population of Belgium, which has been deprived of all industry for nearly a year-and-a-half, have been reduced to this existence of daily waiting in line for a starvation ration.

THE MISERY OF THE CHILDREN. "There is another stratum of society, ,the middle class, just above the poorer working people, which is only partially destitute; but even these must swallow their pride and stand in the long lines every day for a supplementary ration of food, for their means do not enable them to buy enough to keep body and soul together. Many of them are mothers and fathers who have children only partly nourished. When they go home without even the daily ration, as occasionally happens, the suffering becomes pathetically acute. "Then, too, picture to yourself the mental condition of a people who have been without work for more than- a year-and-a-half who have daily heen face to face with the possibility of starvation, and who are cut off from all communication with the outside world by the barbed wire and armed cordons of a conquering foreign army.' In every Belgian city, once a fortnight, the bulletin boards are placarded with bright pink paper —the German 'affiche'—on which the Belgians can read the names of their fellow-countrymen and women who have been sentenced to imprisonment, for terms varying from a year to a life-time 011 account of offences committed against German rule. And, 011 top of all this the majority of the Belgians cannot help realising, always keenly, sometimes bitterly, that they are 'objects' of charity.'

"As to the work of the Neutral Com mission, I begttn by studying the records and personnel of that organisation at its head ollice in London. I became thoroughly convinced that the organisation here is unusually efficient and extremely businesslike in its methods under the direction of Mr. Herbert Hoover, the Chairman, who has real genius for organisation and >1 soul clvaiged with the spirit of relieving the horrors of the war

NO STEALING BY THE GERMANS. ''When I arrived in Belgium I found the same intense zeal for helping tlie unfortunate and the same remarkable efficiency in all branches of the Commission: at the docks in Rotterdam, in the transhipment of supplies to barges and through the canals to the thousands of local Belgian Committees, in fact, through all the various channels of relief—from the barge to the consumer. All the American delegates, and many of the office foreoj throughout Belgium and Northern France, give their services without any recompense whatsoever. The result of this voluntary work is that there are practically no 'overhead' charges, and that the foodstuffs) whtolv are well purchased, cost less to the Belgian consumer than would be paid in Paris, London or New York. In other words, the money contributed yields the maximum amount of relief.

"A few well-fed people outside of Belgium sometimes hint that the Belgians are getting more relief than they need, and that Germany is benefiting, either directly or indirectly, or both, because the British nation "allows bare living supplies, for the nation for whom they went to war, to go through the blockade. As regards the first point, expert neutral dietitians, who have been permitted to "-iait- Belgium, are unanimous in stating

tliat the food doled out to these tlire* I million destitute constitutes the, irreducible minimum living ration. A»j regards the suggestion that Germany is in any way benefiting, the whole queation has been very thoroughly' ah<J im partially investigated ;by the Antral Commission, and their report fully and* conclusively and, to my.wind, definitely proves that there is uo stealing of suplilies by the Gcrma"*,

"IF SUPPLIES WERE STOPPED!"

"I do not think it is quite realised here that many German authorities openly state that if relief supplies were stopped going into Belgium the Germans would then be able to take many Belgian workmeH into Germany where, in munition works and factories, they could release German workmen for fighting. "It would, of course, be improper for to express any opinion as to the corrr fness of this German view. I merely mention it because this aspect of the case does not seem to have presented itself to the publio in England. I can say, however, that in providing these -eiief ni]ipi'f« and permitting them to go through the bVuka'de to be distributed under the vigilant eye of the Neutral Commission, the British people have undertaken % work that i? not only humanitarian and consonant with the loyalty naturally expected between Allies, bat also is very practical.

THE .NEED IS GREAT. "The coneliiiion I have arrived stand i. wont to ik-igiura wiih » perfectly open mind to report to the Rockefeller Vovmda«ion, : which has no connection whatever with Mr. Hoover's organisation—is that the need ic great both for food and clothing in Belgium. There would be wholesale starvation "within two or three weeks if the importation of food into Belgium were stopped. The need will continue to be great many months after peace is declaimed. Factories have' he'cii stripped of machinery and there is complete stagnation of industry in Bcljnum. It will take months to rehabilitate these industries And start the wheels again. Almost any amount of money that can be donated can be immediately used to the best possible advantage of the Belgians in Belgium, and I trust vliat the work of the British National Committee, whose benevolent assistance has been invaluable to the Neutral Relief Commission, will not be hampered by mis-statements emanating from those who have not Md the opportunity of visiting Belgium since the German occupation.'.'