THE BELGIAN SOLDIER

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2592, 14 October 1915, Page 6

THE BELGIAN SOLDIER

APPEAL FOR FUNDS. "Tho Belgian soldier has no home to send him gifts. Will you be his friend?" '

These words-appear at the head of a letter which has reached the editor of The Dominion from tlie organiser of.the Belgian Soldiers' Fund, an organisation presided over by Baron de Broqueville, the Belgian Prime Minister and Minister of War, and having its headquarters at 17-19 James Street, Oxford Street, London, W. The fund is engaged at present in dispatching -water sterilising plants to the front 1 for the use of the Belgian Army and the Belgian military hospitals, and according to a circular forwarded lias already sent out a hundred of such plants with pumps, filters, tanks, etc., each capable of -providing 700 men with- pure water, cold or boiling, at any hour of day or night. An .urgent call had come for 80 more sterilisers, eacli costing £50 when the circular was issued.' It was stated: "The conditions which are arising are beyond belief,',in fact, the carnage is so colossal as to. render inadequate. the preparations for fighting disease mado by even the most modernequipped army. Don't forget that in the South "African war 20,000 bravo soldiers died from diseaso caused by drinking impure water. If you want', to shorten tiio war help to keep up the fitness of the firing line." The fund has also sent to the front for the Belgian Army' 200 field kitchens,' several hundred cases of food comfords, and over 200,000 garments.lliss S. Carey, the 1 organiser of the fund I ,'writes: "The Belgian Army is the only army at the front with no. country to'organise voluntary assistance,.and no country for its Government to fall biick on for war supplies in any dilemma, and in consequence is entirely, dependent on England and her friends for everything. Surely wo cannot refuse si.glass of pure v.-ator to ensure tlio. men keeping fit and healthy this hot.weather. If victory is to bo won, the world cannot afford to lose one man by sickness that threatens owing to the impure state of the water." The Dominion will be pleased to receive and forward subscriptions -to the Belgian Soldiers' Fund 1 , acknowledging ths same in its columns.