LIFE IN BRUSSELS.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 June 1916, Page 4

LIFE IN BRUSSELS.

HUXS MOROSE, BELCIAJTS LIGHTHEAKTED. A Brussels citizen who arrived in London recently gave to a Daily .Mail representative some account of conditions in Brussels.

"The Germans are lost," he said, "and they know it. \t least the higher officers know it, and choir knowledge is evident in their changed demeanor. Their lightheadedness and levity and swagger of the earlier days of the war are gone, and now they are morose. Their depression is reflected also in their treatment of the people, who are made to suffer- in proportion as news gets worse and worse.

"There are many suicides among them. A high personage, said to he a descendant of Moltke, ended his life not long ago in the Hotel de la France, Rue Vtoyale, and because the proprietor reported the affair to the Brussels police instead of to the German authorities, they closed Ids hotel. "The rank and file of the German a'rmy are in a bad mood too. At La Cambre military school not long ago there was something like a revolt, and a number of soldiers were k'illed. They seem hopeless, and are reluctant beyond anything to go back to the Y9er front. Some have been shot as an example, and others, in chains, may be seen going off to prison. A regiment winch was sent for a rest in one of the small villages near by were after only a few days ordered back to the front, and quite half of them actually wept. Even officers have been punished for refusing to go back. "Those moving back to the front have been made drunk (? drugged) to make them seem glad to go, and they have inarched through the streets rolling and singing and shouting. "The position of the inhabitants goes ill. The bread ration of 285 grammes (10y 3 0z.) a day is not sufficient. There are no potatoes. Meat is about 2s 6d per lb and very bad at that. Butter is dearer than meat. It is sold, of course, at a fixed price, and very little is available. Even soap is over Is alb and very bad. iPeople are using carbonate of potassium for washing. "But the people are in fine spirits. They say that the last German loan is a fiasco. They note the growing gloom of the Germans, especially over Verdun, and the lessening of feasting and junketing on the part of the German occupants. "Some of the German women who flocked into Brussels have gone home in the hope of finding things better. Soldiers desert when it is possible. Strictest vigilance has to be exercised."