EUROPE'S PLIGHT

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 49, 22 November 1920, Page 6

EUROPE'S PLIGHT

"Epidemic!" What suffering and, grief went tTirough New Zealand with Hint word two years ngo! Tho epidemic ciime from Europe—and Central Ijuropc to-ilay has worse epidemics which threaten to rage through the whole world. ".Russia, Poland, Austria, and the new- Slates created as a result of tho war, are near enough to be a sovere menace to the health of Europe in the immediate future," ran a Teport in tho London "Daily Mows" recently. "In Itnssin, l,G0O,OIH) cases of typhus ware reported in 191!), while in Poland 230,000 cases werejgirhitered in the same year, 50,000 being added during January and February of thin year. In Czecho-Slovokin there -were 80(10 registered cases of small-pox and 9S3K ».as°s of typhus in 1913. No sufficient sim'tarr organisation exists to cope with the danger. There- aro very few doctors or nurse.?, while soap, disinfectants, medical necessities, etc., aro practically non-existent. The poorer people arc starving and without clothing, while Ihey huddle together in totally inadequate huts and houses—a hotbed for the spread'of disease." Lieutenant-Colonel Bopinpton tells this atorv of Marshal Fooh:—"I hear that when Balfour ashed Fooh what ho meant to do, tide Generalissimo spoke no word wit threw himself into a fighting attitude, hit out hard with his right iistj th?n with his left, tnen gave the .'coup de savate' (a French method of boxing with tho feet) with rij?ht and .left life in tjirn."