HOLLAND GROANS UNDER THE EMBARGO

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 62, 6 December 1917, Page 5

HOLLAND GROANS UNDER THE EMBARGO

TRAGIC STORY OF COAL SUPPLY. A Dutch twin-screw passenger ship recently arrived at an. American port on her maiden trip, and one of her passengers, Lieutenant Ysbrand J. H. do Kempenaer, in the Dutch aviation service, told of conditions in Holland and in Germany. An American embargo, he said, would not only starve Holland, but would starve 60,000 Belgian interned soldiers in Holland, 12,000 English, and 15,000 Germans, not to speak of 200,000 Belgian citizens who fled to Holland when Antwerp was occupied by the Germans. "We havo not been having an altogether easy time under past conditions," said Lieutenant Kempenaer, "but if tho embargo hits us fully we will be in desperate straits. Up to the presont, coal and petrol have been tho scarcest things, but we had had bread cards for a long time, and tho black bread is. practically inedible. It 6eems to bo made of wood and grass, and is soggy and sour and indigestible. Of coal there is a tragic story. For overy five tons of coal_ we wish to buy from Germany, which is the only pl'aco we can get any, we have to send one Hollander to work in tho German mines. So, if we desire 100,000 tons wo must send across 20,000 coal miners. This is impractical, and therefore gas and electricity is much restricted, and nil lights must be extinguished at midnight."