"BRITAIN WILL NOT LET BELGIUM STARVE.”

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144712, 22 June 1915, Page 4

"BRITAIN WILL NOT LET BELGIUM STARVE.”

„ TO TID3 EDITOR. Sir, —We have pledged our honour to restore Belgium. But Belgium is not a word —it is a people; and the Belgian people is starving. If we let it perish during the process of restoration we shall have grasped only the shadow of our task. Mr, Hoover, chairman of the neutral Commission for Relief > in Belgium, and Mr. Fraiiequi, chairman of the committee in Brussels, tells us that “at least a million and a half Belgians are now entirely destitute. With the rapid exhaustion of the meat and vegetable supplies, there will probably bo, before harvest time, 2,500,000 Belgians who must be fed and clothed solely by charity. The remaining 4,500,000 will get their pitiful daily allowance of bread through the commission and will pay for it.” And they add: “Will you help us to keep the destitute alive?'” This neutral commission, marvellously organised and administered, has hitherto succeeded in 311st keeping abreast of the situation, raising its funds from America, other neutral countries, and the British colonies. But their funds are failing fast; and their needs are getting greater. It is in response to their desperate appeal that a National Committee for Belgian Relief has now been formed in pur country; and every penny it collects will go without deduction into the hands of the neutral commission, and through them to the starving Belgian people, in the form of food. So far Germany has kept her word not to filch what is sent for the Belgians; and the organisation of relief now makes it almost impossible for a German to touch one loaf of Belgian bread. The present need is for £500,000 a month; the future need will be even greater. Our own exigencies are, of course, tremendous ; but what would thej’ not be if Belgium bad consulted her own material needs, had just chosen to save her- • self—instead of saving, the western world? With Belgium copiplacent to the German, Paris goup, Calais gono—it would have meant another j T ear on to the years ive may have to fight, an extra five hundred million pounds of money, an extra hundred thousand lives. If ever country owed debt, this country owes it to Belgium, to keep the breath in the hodies of her people. Owes it. and must pay it. Iff s , tam % ing to her guns Belgium saved, of course, the whole . world, for modern civilisation is built on nothing if not on good faith and honourable obligation; but it is France’and Britain before all that she has saved. France, however, has a terrific task in the rescue of her own ruined millions in the north. Thanks, perhaps, to ruined Belgium, Britain has not, may never have, to rescue and restore ruined towns and countryside. In return, what is Britain doing? Spending money and blood like water, to drive the Germans out of Belgium? Vos! But let us be honest. We should have had to do that in any case, for our own interest. Wo are not thereby discharging the debts of gratitude, justice and humanity. Giving hospitality to 200,000 Belgians? It is something, but not enough. Not nearly enough! So far we have not faced at all tho desperate situation of Belgium itself; wo have not, indeed, been asked to. Froin Canada, and Australia, with one-fifth of our population, help to the value of £150,000 a month has been coming in. I‘rom ourselves, practically nothing. But in future, all eyes are turning to us; it is we who are uow T asked to stay the marrh of death. A penny of incometax in our country yields nearly three million pounds. If each one of us sots aside at once one penny from every pound of his income, this people is saved —this people, more cruelly wronged than ever people were, this people to whom each one of us owes a debt, that we have uot realised, that we cannot realise in its full proportions. If Belgium starves, the civilised world incurs a stain more black than we dare to contemplate: a little country gave itself for civilisation, and civilisation, having the means to save it, let it perish! Wo are dealing here not with words, ideals, and what not, we are dealing with hunger—a very simple thing; if people are not fed, they die. No ultimate victories, vindications, and indemnities are of the least use to Belgians, starving now. if they are not kept alive on the shoulders of this country, the richest country, and that which has gained most by Belgium’s suffering, the reproach will lie heaviest. \ erily it will! There can be no exaggeration in the tale of Belgium’s trouble—for no words can oven begin to tell it as it should he told.. There can ho no exaggeration in tho expression of gratitude for what wo owe her. If those wronged and ruined people had done nothing for us, should we grudge them enough money to spare ourselves tho sight of their'starvation just across the sea under our very eyes? But'seeing what they are, what they have done for us—how —how can wo bear to lot them lack the mere sufficiency of life? No! Britain will not let Belgium starve. We have not known hitherto what was needed of us in this race with death. Now we do know. ' We are too proud by far not to pay our debts. For this is a debt of honour, preceding oven the charity that begins .at home. The appeal of the National Committee has been issued. Tho hon. treasurer is Mr. A. Shirley Bonn, M.P., Trafalgar Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London. Every penny contributed' goes to the Belgians m tho form of food. The cry of a brave people comes across tho sea. Pity, ungilded, foods no starving bodies.—l am, etc., JOHN GALSWORTHY. Flat Al, Adelphi Terrace House, Robert Street. Adelphi, ■' London, W.C.

[lt will be seen from the above that the necessities of the Belgians are still so great that every penny New Zealand can send is urgently needed.—Ed., f'-H.]