MOTHERS OF LILLE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15183, 31 March 1917, Page 5

MOTHERS OF LILLE.

SUFFERINGS of their CHILD-

REN FROM HUNGER AND COLD.

PARIS, January 20. Among the human documents which by devious ways have recently reached Paris are several pathetic letters from Frenchwomen residing in the" invaded towns of Lille; Douai, and Maubeuge. When their breadwinners were mobilised the women remained behifid with the rent to pay and the children to feed. For thirty months they have suffered from colcQv hunger, and the countless humiliations* imposed by the enemy. “We have suffered greatly/’ writes one mother, “but, what is a hundred times more cruel, we have seen our children suffer. It has taken all our will-power, all our ingenuity, to fepep them alvie, and many have succumbed through lack of food. In Lille cemetery innumerable little white crosses and broken marble columns bear witness to many an existence cut off on the threshold of life.”

A lady who formerly lived in cornportable ease writes: “I fiad a large flat, three domestic servants, and warmth and light in profusion. Today I live in a garret, without servants, without light j without fire; nud to keep my shivering infant from perishing-of cold my only resource is to press it to my bosom.”