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Show RELIEF COMMISSION REPORTPRQGRESS Remarkable Success in Getting Get-ting Food Supplies to Starving Belgians. NEW YORK, Dec. 27. Remarkable progress in (.he work of getting food, clothing and medical supplies to the suffering suf-fering Belgians is shown in the first official of-ficial report of the commission for relief re-lief in Belgium, which wad received here today from tho headquarters In London. Lon-don. It tabulated the work up to December 7, at which time fourteen relief ships had arrived in Rotterdam, bearing car-Foes car-Foes totaling 31. SSI tons, valued at 31,-617,693. 31,-617,693. At that time the contents of these ships had been delivered to the people in eleven provinces and eight large cities. In addition to these cargoes, the report says that eighteen lighters had been loaded in Holland with food by the Dutch government for immediate relief. The.se cargoes consisted chiefly of food, although al-though they included 336 packages of clothing, 101 packages of medical stores and much lumber to provide shelter for inhabitants of villages destroyed. The distribution of food from Rotterdam Rotter-dam into the most remote provinces was achieved in spite of the inadequate transportation trans-portation facilities. The report continues: con-tinues: "The province of Brabant, which Includes In-cludes Brussels and Louvain, and is therefore there-fore the most populous and most easily accessible, has naturally received the greatest quantity of food, 17,037 tons of foodstuffs, including 7269 tons of wheat and forty-one packages of clothing having hav-ing been distributed there before December Decem-ber 4. 'Liege and the surrounding province of Xamur had received the next greatest quantity, 35S5 tons of food, mostly wheat, and 200 packages of clothing." Hainan. i, the most southerly province, is in deep distress, the commission says, because it includes the mining and manufacturing manu-facturing towns of Mons. Charleroi and Chimav where most of the early fighting fight-ing occurred, and where the large Industrial Indus-trial population was thrown out of work. Transportation is difficult, because the canal system does not reach it and supplies sup-plies must be sent by railroad when the Germans are not using it for military purposes. pur-poses. Nevertheless, 122 tons of food were distributed in Hainault and East Flanders Flan-ders received more than 2000 tons. .Less could be done for West Flanders, where there is still fighting, and the commission, up to December 4, was able to get only 101 tons of food into that territory. Luxemburg, Lux-emburg, hilly and difficult of access, has received tons. In the week ending December 4 a special spe-cial consignment of 704 tons of American corn was sent to Louvain, which was then on the. verge of starvation. Tlie commission says the medical supplies sup-plies were not distributed in Belgium, but were used for Belgian refugees in Holland. |