ONE MEAL A DAY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 181, 9 June 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

ONE MEAL A DAY.

DISTRESS IN BELGIUM. '• There would be wholesale starvation within three or four weeks u the importation of food into Belgiem were stopped." That is the carefully considered opinion ot Mr. F. C. Valcott, a well-known American, who has arrived in London fro.n belgium, where he went at the reqrest of the Rockefeller Foundation to investigate the work of the Neutral Commission for Relief, of which Herbert Hoover is chairman. "If any of '-boss who cavil at sending relief supplies into Belgium could only visit Belgium,' said Mr. Walcott. "and could see personally the plight of the suffering peple, they would come back as eager for the continuance of this relief wrk as 1 now am. It is difficult for myone getting three ample meals a day, with plenty of fuel in the house, ;.ltd living even :<j liberate luxury, '■o comprehend what it means suddenly to be reduced t:> exiting on one meal r. day. That one me:! I in Belgium consists of 300 grammes of bread which is the equivalent of three medium-szed breakfast rolls or three thick slices of bread —and one half-litre —approximately one pint—of soup, made chiefly from vegetables. Of the seven millions in Belgium three millions are practically destitute, and they have to sti-nd in line from one to three hours a day for this pi+tance of food. The depots for distribution are generally only Surge enough to accommodate between 30 and 50 people at a time, so long queues of the hungry extend into 'he street for a hundred yards or more. AJo-st of those who wait are so poor that they have no protection, in the shape of an umbrella or a thick coat, against the discomfort of stormT davs.

TOO LATE. "In the cities of Belgium T have recently seen thousands of people lined up in th,e snow, or rain-soaked and chilly, waiting for bread and soup. I have returned to some of the distributing stations at '.ln- end of the day, and have often found many men, women, and children ••■till standing in line, but as the doors were then closed, tliey were c-onipel'ed 10 go back to their pitiful homes, cold, wet. and miserable. It was not until IS weary hours afterwards that iliey got the meal they missed. Almost one-half of the population of Belgium, which has been deprived of ail industry for a \>nr and 'i half, have been reduced to this existence of daily waiting in iine for a starvation ration. There -s another stratum of society, the mi l.lle-class, just above the poorer working people, which is only partially destitute; but even these mu. 3 t swallow their pride and str.nd in iine for a supplementary ration of food, for their means do not enable them to buy enough to keep body and soul tgcther. Main- of them are mothers an ! fathers, v. ho have children only partially nourished. "When they go home without even the daily ration, as occasionally happens, the suffering becomes pathetically acute.

NO THF/jT BY GERMANS. "Then, too, picture to you!self the mental eonditi )n of a people '.Uio have been without i.erk for more than a year and a half, who have drily been face' to face with the possibilities of starvation, and who are cut off from all communication with the outside world by the barbed wire and armed cordons of a conquering foreign army. In every Belgian city, once o fortnight, the bulletin boards are placarded with bright pink paper the German 'afliche' on which the Belgians can read the name-; of their fellow-country-men and women who have been sentenced to imprisonment, for terms varying from a year to a life-time on a count of offences committed against German rule. And, on top of all this the 11 ajority of Be'gians cannot help realising, always keenly, sometimes bitterly, that tiiey are 'objects of cliari t v.' ....

"I do not think it is quite realised here that many German authorities openly state that if relief supplies were stopped going into Belgium the Germans would then be able to take many Belgian workmen into Gtrniatvy, where, in munition works and factories, they could release German workmen for fighting. The need is great both for food and clothing in Belgium. There would be wholesale starvation within two or three weeks i! the importation ot food into Belgium were stopped. The need will continue to lie great many months after peace : s declare;!. Factories have been stripped of machinery, and there is complete stagnation of industry i:i Belgium. Itwill take months to rehabilitate these industries and start the whe.vs again. Almost any amount of money that can be donated can be immediately used to the best possible advantage of the Belgians in Belgium, and T tcu~>t that the work of the British National Committe", whose benevolent assistance has l:<>en invaluable to the Neutral Relief Commission, will not be 1 fin pored by mis-statements emanating from those who have net had the opportunity of visiting Belgium since the German occupation.'"

To lis* the safety of the (hul'cll steeple a. country vicar climhel it with a scaling ladder a feat req.iit jig nrv sma'l amornt of nerve. lie was proud of his achievement, and at a meeting of his parishioners described with a wealth of detail his feelings while aloft. "When I reached the top aad saw the huge golden weathercock gleaming in the sunlight, what do you think I did?" he- a^ked. All old farmer, who look"d the piclure of boredom, hazarded a guess. "You cheated the weathercock," he si 11. "What do you mean, sir?" sharply demanded the vicar. " Why. you did it out of the job of crowing," the farmer replied.