Salt Lake Telegram | 1919-03-05 | Page 3 | Belgian Flays Food Rumor Mongers

I I I BELBAN l IAN fLAYS flA y fOOD 1000 MON f I IBy By Associated Press PARIS March Emile Franqui a member of the Begian cabinet and at atone atone one time chairman of of the Belgian Beglan national national na- na relief committee announced today today to- to day that he had sent the following message to United States Senator William M 1 Calder ht at Washington under under un- un der date of March 4 I am shocked by reports that you ou have moved an investigation of the statement that some American food was sent to Belgium and northern France in such bad condition that It poisoned my countrymen men How could such lies Ues be received serIously During four years ears of the German occupation I myself was head of the organization which cooperated within Belgium with the American relief commission I have had daily knowl- knowl edge of the quality use and effect of the precious food which saved my nation nation na- na tion and the tho lives of the people In the occupied parts of France I bitterly resent and and m my countrymen are filled f with sorrow that responsible men should lend their ears ears' to detestable slander against Americans who gave us four years of theIr life liCe strength 1 I and talent I feel that it would belittle be- be I little their service ser to deny the gossip I yet it Is impossible to let it pass I Therefore for myself self and for my I I emphaticallY protest against I Is tissue of falsehoods Eleven millions millions mil mil- milI I lions of my countrymen and I Inhabitants of northern France arE I alive which is proof that none starved I and that none was poisoned l It If II I. I say more it would be to cry I shame agaInst those few Americans i iwho who would besmirch the noblest thing which came out of the war and the noble charac character er brought rought out by the I I wor work of the commission for relief in Belgium through its tens o R I of unselfish workers workers' in A Awell well as actually in t. t e wars war's