SUFFERING BELGIUM.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 270, 27 April 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

SUFFERING BELGIUM.

The work of saving life is so much less dramatic than that of destroying it that the average public, quite naturally, knows little as to how ten million Belgian and French citizens have been kept alive during the two and a half years that Germany has occupied tna territory they inhabit. The death in battle, cr by massacre, of ten per cent, of these people would "stagger humanity" even in these times, but the outwardly pros&ic task of protecting all ct them and keeping them alive slips by comparatively unnoticed in the intimate tragedy of a war tnafc brings a knock from death at the door of nearly every home. Yet, as one writer has said, "this preservation of almost the whole of one nat : on, and of an appreciable part of another, constitutes an undertaking which, in scope and perplexity, can only be compared to the war itself." It was in this great work that tne United States rendered one of her most beneficial and valuable services to the Allies. On the outbreak cf the war Mr Herbert Hoover, an eminent American engineer, formed a committee in London to help the thousands of Americans who were suddenly stranded during their summer visit to our shores. So well did he do this that Ambassador Page, knowing also his world-wide experience in organisation and re-organisation, intuitively turned to him on October (Jth, 1914, and said: "Hoover, we've got most of our stranded Americans off; tell me what should we do about these appeals from Belgium?" If these were not the exact words, they, at any rate, represent tno sense of an interview which has bad incalculable effect. Mr Hoover, with the co-operation of Ambassador Page, "overnight," so to speak, formed a committee of Americans in London and the United States to co-operate with their fellow-co'intrymen in Brussels. A powerful committee was appointed in Yew York, and an appeal was issued by Mr Hoover, with the approval of King Albert, to the American people, who responded with £'1,OOO.Of)0 within twelve months. A co-operating committee was established in Brussels the "Comite National"—a purely Belg an body, which included those lending bankers and business men who nad remained, for making arrangements ,vs to tho distribution of the relief. Influential committees were also established in Spain. That, in a very sketchy way, describes the genesis cf tho Neutral Commission for Belief in Belgium. Tn March, 1915, at the request of Frr . -h authorities, tne Comrn'ssion urderfock to arrange for the feeding if the people in the cccupied districts of Frame. To-day, thanks to tno powers vested in it bv the various belligerents, the Commission i.s pract'c.illy responsible— with its co-operating organisation, tne Belgian Oomito Nnt:o:.al in Brussels and the Northern France Committee—fo- the entire feelIng of about ten million people, of whom some 3 J millions in Belgium rnd two millions !n I "ranee are total! »* (lefttnte. Fp to January last it had expended on this work over (.'12.000.010 Of this amount soir-* i'-"j,000,000 has f'Cen contributed through the henovolrne* <>f the world, t ' balance reprc<entim': subventions frcru tre Belgian

Gorernmoii 1 -, snppiicl by th<> rit : -li rind French Governments and by French institutions, w : th the notable addition < f o-'t £.1.000.(100. which is d'rived f '•om profile riade on the sale of food to those who could afford to pa » Co- if. The Com nns-ion has already sent, to Belgium and Northern Frame nearly tlire?