A CHRISTMAS APPEAL FOR BELGIUM

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2925, 10 November 1916, Page 5

A CHRISTMAS APPEAL FOR BELGIUM

HUNGER, SUFFERING, AND SICKNESS

j Zealand Cable !A.Essocia,fcion. I • Sydney, November 8. [ The Lord Mayor of London (Sir W. H. Dunn) has cabled a Christmas appeal to the Empire on behalf of two and a. half million Belgian children, of. which number one and a quarter million are under the age of twelve, who are held captives by the Germans. Those over two years are onlj; kept alive by the humane' intervention of the Neutral Relief Commission, which distributes' the bare minimum of food provided by the Allied Governments. After two years the intolerable captivity is beginning to _ tell its dreadful tale. Tuberculosis is rapidly increasing, and rickets are becoming epidemic. The babies born are painfully less, in weight and measurement. Hunger, Buffering, and sickness have fallen on mother and child.

The Lord_ Mayor urgently asks thai on every British dinner table on Christmas Day there should be an envelope of mercy, into which should be pliced. as athajiks offering for security and comfort, what everyone can. spare to save the oppressed Belgian children, and to provide that additional nourishment by which alone the ravages of tuberculosis can be stayed. The. envelopes are obtainable at the branohes of the National Committee throughout the Empire. /