BELGIUM’S STARVING MILLIONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1365, 23 February 1915, Page 3

BELGIUM’S STARVING MILLIONS.

APPEAL TO AUSTRALASIA

WHAT CAN BE DON I LOCALLY ?

The Belgian Commission has sent by cable a long appeal to Australia aud New Zealand, asking for a continuous and supreme effort on behalf of seven million starving Belgians. One million two hundred and fifty thousand sterling must he provided every month. In Brussels alone, two hundred thousand people wait daily in the snow for the "bread of tears.” The Commission expresses the fear that the amazing self-restraint of the people, who are suppressing their inevitable hatred, will collap.se under the impelling influence of anguish and hunger, aud that tb' - ’ 'h though unarmed, strike despviaiely, with tragic futility, against the invader. They will suffer the inevitable consequences : thej' will he shot like ravenous dogs. Will Australia and New Zealand stand by and calmly await such au end to a noble sacrifice ? Only a stupendous and organised effort can avert the catastrophe. Four good-sized cargoes of cereals must be shipped to Belgium weekly, or the Belgian nation, to the world’s eternal shame, will perish. Seventy-live thousand pounds sterling will fill a live-thousandton ship with cargo, and keep Belgium from starvation for two days. Will Australia and New Zealand give ,£75,000, or its equivalent in food, monthly ? The effort must be not only superhuman, but continuous.

Is it too much to say that Belgium’s sacrifice has saved the integrity of the British Empire ? What would have happened to France and Great Britain but for Belgium’s timely hold up of the great German war machine, and now these brave people are starving and homeless. Old people cry for bread and babies for food. New Zealand has done a little to alleviate Belgium’s suffering, but do we realise one tittle of what we owe to Belgium ? Something more than the spasmodic and flash in the pan effort is required of us. We must give in gold systematically and regularly, until the peril is o'er, pa;t of our income to sustain this starving nation. We go to race meetings and lose one, two, five, twenty or fifty pounds and reckon we have had jolly good sport ; we indulge our appetilies and pleasures, but do we think that but for the action of Belgium we may have been reduced for a time to serfdom under German rule ? The realisation of this tact should crush our sordid selfishness. Vou have given one pound ? Give twenty, give systematically weekly a share of your earnings. A local citizen makes a practical suggestion. Hers it is, and if taken up throughout the Dominion, New Zealand could easily find its quota of the sum required to save the Belgian people : Each miller, business man, etc., give regularly a certain definite sum, to be paid to, or collected by, a responsible person every week. Foxtou could provide at least £2O per week, and if other towns gave a like amount 011 systematic lines, the Dominion’s share would be assured, kittle efforts and working bees are alright in their way, but something urgent requires to be done. Already our informant says he knows of two or three who will contribute sums of £2 and under weekly, A meeting should be convened at once and a committee set up to put the suggestion into concrete form. If Foxton leads, other towns will follow.