POVERTY IN ALSACE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15343, 4 October 1917, Page 5

POVERTY IN ALSACE.

THE PKO-FRENCH POPULACE, LONDON. September 29. The Times' correspondent at Amsterdam states that neutrals from Alsace compare the conditions at the beginning of the war with the conditions that exist now. There was a waste of provisions then, but economy extends even to rags to-day- Paper is largely substituted for cloth for clothing. The Germans requisition leather, so the Alsatian women's hair is substituted for the driving straps of machinery. The heads of girls are shaven and they wear caps inscribed, "I've given my hair to the Fatherland." Workmen's boots sell at £3 a pair, and ladies' at £5. The soles last only a fortnight. Bad bread causes dysentery, and the infant mortality is exceedingly high, 50 per cent of the newly-bonf- dying. The price of butter is from 5s to 12s a pound. Fine flour made from woodshavings is advertised. The populace is as confidently pro-French as ever.