PEASANTS DYING OF HUNGER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 194, 25 January 1915, Page 6

PEASANTS DYING OF HUNGER.

o GERMAN* INHUMANITY TOWARDS THE BELGIANS. The following letter has been received by a Sydney corerspondent from the managing director of a large Belgian glass works doing large business with Australia: — "I last wrote, you from Blankenberg, but after the fall of Antwerp we had to leave for Dunkirk by cattle trucks preceding our army, and then we came on to Paris. All our fine seaside resorts have been damaged and the whole of Belgium is in a dilapidated condition. The Albochis (new slang name given to the Germans) have sacked and destroyed houses, cottages, farms, churches and factories. When they were advancing they sacked houses, but when forced to retreat they destroyed everything and razed all places to the ground, including most of our glass factories. They have been repulsed from the Yser, and probably when you receive this the Germans will have to fight hard between Brussels, Charleroi and Waterloo, I recommend to your and your friends' charity, the poor Belgian peasants and workpeople who are without food, and dying of hunger. The Germans have sent all the foodstuffs to Cologne, telling the Belgians to starve. In saying this, they for once do not lie. Belgium has no more. meat, cattle, or horses; all have been taken without payment by the Germans for their army. if outside help does not soor. come, the remaining Belgians will have no food. Butter at Brussels is 15 francs per kilo (.6s per lb). The Germans compel the older Belgians to bury the dead, and all the Belgians between 18 and .'ls are forced to don German uniform and are sent away to fight against the Russians. This is honor as the Germans know it."