HUNGRY MILLIONAIRES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3049, 10 April 1917, Page 6

HUNGRY MILLIONAIRES

LIFE IN OCCUPIED FLANDERS. Hungry millionaires! Extraordinary as it jseems, that is the tale told by the X. family, who have , arrived in England via Holland from the occupied territory in Belgium (says the ' Westminster -Gazette"). * This family, who-lived in a suburb of; Bruges, slate that they were not ! allowed' to leave their own estate without producing a passport, arid when discovered without one they were fined 100 marks. • The Germans took control of the farm and kitchen garden produce, but allowed the ; owners to keep, five . eggs a week., ( On one/occasion,-witen it was found they had kept nine, !a fine of lpO marks was imposed. The stables were emptied, the cattle- were taken, and when they tAed to hido the carriages they were forced by 'a representative of Kultur, pistol in hand, to give them up. All litters of pigs, and even .of rabbits, had to be registered. Three milch cows 1 were left on condition that every day M. X'. delivered a certain minimum'amount of ''milk to the German military hospital at Bruges. He was allowed to keep Bis milk-cart to cfirry it there, ,and on the road women on their knees begged milk for their children or invalids. By means of watering the milk he was able to give them a little; \ ;■ . Day and night the, sound of the can-.! 11011 fired at the Loire could be heard, and when Zeebrugge was bombarded the windows of the. chateau shook. Grass grew over the roads and through the village streets because there, was no traffic. From the villages of Ostkamp alone 700 able-bodied men were deported.