"BRITAIN WILL NOT LET BELGIUM STARVE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 233, 23 June 1915, Page 2

"BRITAIN WILL NOT LET BELGIUM STARVE.

(To the Editor)

Sir, —We have pledged our honour to restore Belgium. But Belgium is not a word —it is a people; and the Belgian people are starving. If we let it perish during the process of restoration we shall .have grasped only the shadow of our task.

Mr Hoover, chairman of the Neutral Commission for Relief in Belgium, and Mr Francqui, chairman of the,Committee in Brussels, tell us that "at least a million and a half Belgians are now entirely destitute. With the Tapid exhaustion of the meat and vegetable supplies, there will probably be, before harvest time, 2,500,000 Belgians who must be fed and clothed solely by charity. The remaining 4,500,000 will get their pitiful daily allowance of bread through the Commission and will pay for it." And they add: "Will you help us to keep the destitute alive?"

This Neutral Commission, marvellously Organised and administered, has hitherto succeeded in just keeping abreast of the situation, raising its funds from America, other neutral countries, and the British Colonies. But their funds are failing fast; and their needs are getting greater. It is in response to their desperate appeal that a National Committee for Belgian Relief has now been formed in our country, and every penny it collects will go without deduction into the hands of the Neutral Commission, and through them to the starving Belgian people, in the form of food. So far Germany has kept her word not to filch what is sent for the Belgians; and the organisation of relief now makes it almost impossible for a German to touch one loaf of Belgian bread. The present need is for £500,000 a month; the future need will bo even greater. Cur own exigencies are, of course, tremendous; but what would they not be if Belgium had consulted her own material needs, had. just chosen to save herself—instead of saving the Western world? With Belgium complacent to the German, Paris ©<#s. Calais gone—it would have meant another year on'to the years we may hav e to fight, an extra five hundred million pounds of money, an extra hundred thousand lives. If ever country owed debt, this country owes it to Bel gium, to keep the breath in the bodies of her people. Owes it, and must pay it.

In standing*, to her guns Belgium saved of course the whole world, for modern civilisation is built on nothing If not on good faith and honourable obligation; but it is Franco and Britain befor Q all that she has saved. France, however, has a terrific task in the rescue of her own ruined millions in the nGrth. Thanks, perhaps, to mined Belgium Britain has not. may never have, to rescue and restore ruined towns and countryside.

In return, what is Britain doing? Spending money and blood like water, to drive the Germans out. of Belgium, Yes! But let us be honest. We should have had to do that in any case, for oi'r own interest. We are not thereby discharging the debts of gratitude, jus. tice, and humanity. Giving hospitality to 200,000 Belgians? It is something, but not enough. Not nearly enough! So far we have not faced at all the desperate situation of Belgium itself; we have not, indeed, been asked to. From Canada, and Australia, with onefifth of our population, help to the value of £150,000 a month has been coming, in. From ourselves, practically nothing. But in future, all eyes are turning to us; it is we who are now to stay the march of death. A penny of income tax in our country yields nearly three million' pounds. If each one of us sets aside at once one penny from every pound of his income, this people is saved —this people more cruelly wronged than ever peopl e were, this people to whom each one of us owes a debt, that we have not realised, that \v e cannot healiss in its full prooprtions. If Belgium starves, the civilised world incurs a stain more black than wc dare to contemplate: A little country gave itself for Civilisation, and Civilisation, hjaving the means to save it, let it perish! We are dealing bore not with words, ideals, and what not, we ar e dealing with hunger —a. very simpl e thing; if people are not fed, they die. No ultimate victories, vindications, and indemnities ar e of the least use to Belgians, starving now. If they are not kept alive — en the shoulders of this country, the richest country, and t,hat which has gained most by Belgium's suffering, the reproach will lie heaviest. Verily it will!

There can be no exaggeration in the tale of Belgium's trouble for no words can even begin to tell it as it should be told. There can be no exaggeration in expression of gratitude for what w e owe lie?. If those wronged and ruined people had done nothing for us, should wc grudge them enough money, to spare ourselves the sight of their starvation- just across the sea under our very eyes? But seeing what they are, what they have done for us —:how —how r-an we bear to let them lack t.h'o mere sufficiency of life? No! Britain will not let Belgium starve. Wo hav e not known rbithcsto. ;':-hi\i. &?&8 xxedoA c-i. us -in jt-!tT<-:'' race

with death/New we do know. We are too proud by far not to pay our debts. For this is a debt of honour, preced ing even the charity that begins at home. The appeal of the National Committee has been issued. The Hon. Treasurer is Mr A. Shirley, M.P., Trafalgar Square, London. Every penny contributed to the Belgians in th e form of food. The cry of a brave pceple comes across the sea. ■ Pity, ungilded, feeds no starving bodies.—Yours etc., (Signed) JOHN GALSWORTHY Flat Al, Adelphi Terrace House, Robe>;t Street, Adelphi, Loudon, W.C. May 2, 1915.