WORK OF THE RELIEF COMMITTEE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2471, 26 May 1915, Page 9

WORK OF THE RELIEF COMMITTEE

4 SUPPLIES NOT INTERFERED Willi. At a recent meeting of the Belgian National Committee of .Relief, Mr. Shirley lienn, M.P., explained the committee's work. Australia and New Zealand had, he said, made a magnificent response, and the Empire might well be proud. Ho desired to allay any fears that /the Germans were receiving any of the foodstuffs, which were taken in barges, under the American flag, to 120 warehouses, and distributed among thirtv-cwo thousand communities. It was possible to account for the destination of every tou brought in. The Germans had scrupulously adhered to their agreement not to interfere. The committee, continued Mr. Benn, desired to avoid humiliating charity, and required able-bodied persons to work i'or their bread. Fifty per centum of tho population of Louvain and Malincs and other industrial centres was dependent 011 charity. As the result of the efforts made, and despito the economic paralysis of Belgium. thero writ no starvation. Madame Van dor Vclde, wife of a Belgian ex-Minister, said the Belgians had not lost their souls. She had just learned that eight hundred postmen ill Brussels had refused to work for tho Germans. No railwaymen were working, and there were 740,000 men idlo and penniless, they preferring poverty to working for murderers. The bodies containing those steadfast souls must bo kept alive.