IN STARVING SERBIA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 207, 21 May 1918, Page 6

IN STARVING SERBIA

LA BO UE LE ADE It'S' COMPLAINT.

li. Douchau l'opovitch, f.lio secretary of tho Serbian Socialist Parly, was recently interviewed in London on the state of affairs in Serbia. His country, ho eaye, has suffered more in ;.Topcrlion to its population than oven Belgium or .Rumania. Of a population of ij millions after the Balkan wars < ver a million havo been killed or died of privation. Bad as conditions are in the districts occupied by the Austrians, they are even worso in those which are under Bulgarian rulo. "The Bulgarian Government," 11. Popnvilch says, ''which we would not for ti moment confuse with Ihe Bulgarian people, established in Serbia and Macedonia a barbarous system of deportation, terrorism, and deliberate, methodical extermination, of which ono cannot find an vxumplo in locent history unless in the annals of the Government of Abdui JTamid."

M. Popovitch declared further that the Soi'binu Government had failed in its duty towards (ho people who have remained in Serbia. Thousands of destitute families havo been left without support, and of the hundreds of millions of money obtained from the Allies very little has been spent upon :elief work. The explanation of this rppears to be that the Allied Governments fear that supplies do not reach the people, but aro taken by tho enemy. "We do not understand I his attitudu of the Governments," snid M. Popovitch. "Thero is no reason for Ihe prohibition. I know from personal observation that tho provisions intended "or Ihe Serbian people havo not been seized; rations Riven Io tho peopie have not oven been reduced. Tho Government prohibition is actually working to the detriment of tho Serbian people, and not of tho Central Powers." In the imnio of the Serbian Socialist Party, therefore, M. Popovilch appeals Io the English public to help the Serbian people by urging the Government- In abolish the prohibition of provisions for distribution to the distressed families.