"EDGE OF A NATION."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 149, 19 November 1914, Page 2

"EDGE OF A NATION."

BELGIUM'S PLIGHT. f PENNILESS REFUGEES IN OTHER j LANDS. London, October 20. The plight of the Belgian people both at home and in Holland, England and France, is stirring the hearts and mind? already distraught by the horrors oi war. Figures are necessarily vague, but a conservative estimate is that *,500,00 Belgians, out of a population of 7,000,00b have been expatriated. Lord Gladstone's committee says that 70,000 arrived in London during the last week, and the women's relief committee, which sent a ship to Holland last week, reports that l m eight cities of Holland the refugees number 500,000; in other words they are more numerous than the native population. The Folkestone Committee alone has the names of 10,000 refugees on its lists, some among them having little money and only a few having winter clothing. Folkestone has already established a maternity home and two 'hospitals, which are well filled. There are many gentlefolk amongst these fugitive Belgians,j who are not used to labor and who ac-tl cept charity reluctantly. [I

ENGLISH AID REFUGEES. * The London committee has twentyseven sub-committees in different cities in England, Scotland and Wales, and these organisations are placing refugees in homes as rapidly as possible. Alexandria Palace is being used as the central point for the reception work. Lady Emmott and Lady McDowell, head committees for collecting warm clothing, for which work is done by Boy Scouts. Belgian wounded are scattered in British hospitals. Their whereabouts has been registered and this information is available at the Grand Hotel in London.

Tlio penniless refugees here arc sufTer.ing less than tliose in Holland and elsewhere. Many of tliem say that the poor, the sick and the aged are in a condition at homo more pitiable than it their own.

A .prosperous Belgiatt glass manufacturer, of Cliarleroi, an employer of several hundred people, may be taken as typical of the way most of these people look to the United States for help. This man requested for publication in the United States of an open letter addressed to President Wilson, American help for the people of Belgium; "Their money will soon be gone," this manufacturer said to-day, "and the payrolls are discontinued. Food is scarce. My people must either beg or starve." WILL NOT RETURN TO BELGIUM. The editor of the Independence Beige, of Brussels, is now in London. His paper is now being published successively in Ghent and Ostend, and it will shortly appear in the British capital. This man, speaking to-day of the Belgian exodus, said:— "There are to-day perhaps 2,000,000 Belgians outside the border of their own country. It is doubtful which are tlio better off, those inside or those outside. Millions would have gone had they not] been too poor, or too optimistic. It is useless to ■ urge them to return and live under German rule. They will remain away until the war is over, no matter what happens. I came out with my family of four persons. All our baggage was in two handbags, and we had little money. I have a city home in Brussels and a country home outside. I don't care to see them while the Germans are there." I _ The tremendous responsibility of caring for these Belgian refugees presents problems which are being discussed at length in English papers. KING ALBERT'S GRATITUDE. This same paper has published an interview with King Albert, who expresses his gratitude for what has been done on behalf of "poor Belgium, now merely the edge of a nation."

The King urges that the Belgians be •given work and not supported by charity. Countless suggestions have been made. Thees include colonization in 'lreland and the establishment of new lace factories and similar industries. The fact that British unemployment has been increased by the war accentuates the problem. One London paper has collected more than 155,000 dollars for the refugees.