A HUMAN DOCUMENT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2646, 17 December 1915, Page 4

A HUMAN DOCUMENT

HUNGER CRY OP A GERMAN WOMAN — The "Vorwarts" reprints from a Silesian miners' paper one of thoso human documents—a letter from a poor womali whose husband is at tho front—which are worth more than all the official and semi-official Press articles as evidence of the suffering of the broad masses of tho German people. The letter was, in fact 1 , written as a reply to tho declaration of an UnderSecretary in the Roichstag that the soldjers' families are "adequately" provided for. 'l'ho woman writes that all she get 3 from the Stat'e for herself and her two little children, 5 and 7 years old respectively, is 16s. 6d. a. fortnight; in addition, sincc the beginning of. the present year, she has been receiving from a charitable society little parcels of food, and once or twice slio got, 10s. from it towards tho rent. So far from such support being "adequate," she has been unable to pay her rent months: and since she had gone to her old mother to help her in her house she has forfeited the assistance of the charitablo society. Hunger and Misery. Here is how she puts her case"How am I to provide for my children's maintenance, and how am I to pay off my debt to the landlord? . . . There can be no question of sending any parcels to my poor husband . (who has beon at the front since August 6, .1914). I am as little able to send him anything from- my few starvation, pence as ho is to send me anything from his. . . . Even in the house of my parents I have to provide for my maintenance, since my old father is an invalid and" has brought up eight children, of whom three sons and two sons-in-law are at the front. And they, too, would like to have from time to time a little present from home. "Where is the 'adequate' provision when one has lived for twelve months without butter, meat, or milk? Wo are all suffering already from underfeeding. My youngest child has died from emaciation. I should like the gentlemen in tho B-eichstag who assert that we are adequately provided for to havo a look at my thin, emaciatod children. "To whom shall I reveal my misery? Should 1 make my husband's heart still heavier ? Or shall I complain to my parents, who are themselves so poor that I have scarcely enough bread and potatoes? And yet it is so painful to see the children so run down, because they, too, will have to earn their bread some day." _ , The letter continues in this simple and touching style at some length, but the passages. quoted are sufficient io give oils an insight into the t'rue condition of tho German masses.