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Show I! AWFL'L MISERY IS SEEN IN BELGIUM . New York Commissioner Says Nothing Written Could Exaggerate Ex-aggerate the Horrors. PEOPLE ARE TERRIFIED,1 No Homes to Sleep In, No ! Seed to Sow, No Tools and No Food. London. Xo. 1$, 1 20 p. ra .Tarvia E. Br!1 of New York, who on behalf W of the American roramission for ro- Hef in Belgium, assisted in the distribution dis-tribution of the firm earpo of relief II supplies sent to the Bi-lghims has f given The Associate d Prefa a de scription of conditions in the stricken counry. Mr Bell said: "Nohing that has been written co;jId exaggerate the misery of Bel-j Bel-j gium. We drove for miles through grae yards Stakes, on some of J which wore soldiers tattered coats J and helmets, were the tombstones deserted fields are cemete ries s v. e entered the village , women and children chil-dren sought refuge in the ruins oi roofless homes, terrified lest we were some fresh visitation of war. Their I faces wore drawn and lined an 1, if I you could only see the gruesome s-nr roundinss in which they are strug-gl'ug strug-gl'ug for existence, you would not wonder that they fail to smile. I Situation Is Unbelievable. "The Belgian peasant has in manv I districts no home in which to sleep, no seed to sow, no implements with which to work, no transport to reach a market and finally no heart to i struggle against the inevitable. It is unbelievable that war ever produced such a complete and tragic paralysis as we caw in many parts of Belgium ; It cannot he attributed to lack of courage on the part of the civilian population or to the Inhumanity of I Tm a the conqueror. It Is simply war up to date: civilized. Christian war. "The American relief steamer Oob-lenz, Oob-lenz, carrying more than 1000 tons of foodstuffs, arrived at Rotterdam from London at 3 o'clock Sunday morning The Dutch government, with great kindness, made an exception to the rigid rule against working on Sunday. The labor unions made equal concessions conces-sions w ith the result that on Monday morning eight barges towed by four express tugs loft Rotterdam on rout.' to UrusM-ls with relief supplh-s. On each barge was a large printed no tlc( certifying tjiat the cargo had been sent by the American commis llpi in . are of the American minister in Belgium. On the door of the cap-lain cap-lain s cabin m each barge was a copy of General Von Dor Goltz' rrlanu-lion rrlanu-lion instructing nil German officials tf give sate conduct and assistance to ihe American relief cargo. Gen-. Gen-. ral vbn Tier Goltz is German military mili-tary governor of Belgium Dutch Crews on Barges. The crews of the barges and tugs were Dutch and each man carried with no little pride an order for safe conduct from the German authorities, permitting him to go to Brussels and return unmolested to Holland. Accompanied by M M. Ianghorne. secretary of the Amrrir.in lecation at Brussels, and Mr Wyman, an American Amer-ican resident, In an automobile I followed fol-lowed this odd flotilla of mercy as it threaded its way From canal to canal ca-nal and from lock to lock At Hans-wert. Hans-wert. a town on the Belgian Dutch fron'ler I anticipate-d some difficulties difficul-ties as to this first consignment of relief. On the contrary the German officials were fttllj informed and then- was no delay whatever "Thence at Brussels the German ar rangements for go-iing our cargo through expeditiously were perfect. The sealed hatches of the barges were never opned "Th people came running to the banks of the cnnal where they stared at our flotilla a- if it were a mirage. For a week not a single barse had passed where formerl there were a II IKMJil II. I J II II' J UJ . "To the Belgian country folk it was just a God-sent dream to remind ' them of the p'eful days preceding I the nightmare of nnr When they I found that they were real barges j bearing food, their thankfulness found ready expression "Wednesday morning, just a week I after the ship left London, we droe up in from of the American legation m I'.russels and told Brand Whitlock, the American minister to Belgium, that the relief barges were safely moorer in n pocket of the mam cnnal There wps no need for the news K.pers to spread the report of our arrival. In one hour ali Brussels lenew ur.d rejoiced. Many people had feared that we would never get the food into Belgium and that, if we did. we would not get by the wall of soldiers surrounding Brussels "We drove back to Holland by way of Louvaln, Aerschot and Thou-rout Thou-rout to Breda on the Hutch frontlrr We found several villages in the Llm-burg Llm-burg district that had been without salt for a month At almost over bridge we met men with boxes, soliciting so-liciting relief from travelers from more fortunate districts. This looks like begging but there are some conditions con-ditions justifying an thing We met few Belgian men Eighty per cent of ihe people in the?.- country districts dis-tricts ar'-' women and children We saw them eatinp green vegetables, beets and apples They had little else. "There were thousands of children all afraid to laugh Like their mothers, moth-ers, they seemed spellbound by the melancholy fascination of the ruins In which they found shelter. The contrast between them and the contented con-tented song-loving German soldier io appalling" "The Germans who throughout treated us with ihe greatest courtesy and consideration, are clearing the debris from the water fronts so that the shipments of relief supplies from Amerlea can be landed in the various vari-ous towns without difficulty. They also are working on the canals and promise us by November 17 to clear the waterway to Liee. which at present is very hard to reach." Mr. Bell will return to Rotterdam on Saturday to continue the work of rushing the emergency food supplies into districts where they are most needed. |