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Show I POLAND IS NOW I TO BECOME NATION Dr. Boris Bogcn, Just Returned Re-turned From Relief Work, Tells of Conditions. & NEW YORK, Nov. 27. Poland to- Ht daj is a crazy-quilt of destitute racial Hi -roups all kept in existence prlmarllj L h-. in t one thingAmerican food. H; Thete would be no Poland on (he map lruluv except for Amelca." $ Boris liocm of New York thus V sums up the situation in Poland, from H which unfortunate country he has u H roturufd. after more than ton months I here a? a representative of the I distribution committor of funds for American Jewish Relief agencies, and ;is director general of nil Jewish re- H lief work. Dr. Bopen, whoso prdtapl and efficient services in helping keeps hundreds of thousands of starving per- H sons alive were recently praised by H Food Commissioner Herbert C- Hoov- H er, visited every part of Poland, from Hj the larse centers to the remote and H' desolate regions beyond the Bu- river, HI i ho former limit of the Bol-'h- if; tichi- Hl ing. , . remarkable change bae taken L place in Poland during tbe past few HI months, ho declares, the change from V a state of chaos to the beginnings ot a H nation. The Poland of the present that H' ; he depicts is a desolate and poverty-Hi poverty-Hi stricken land, made up of a number of H national life, a land whore tho eur-H eur-H ' rency has deprrciaied to about one-Li one-Li ninth of Its former value, where bread Hr1 la Still five dollars a pound in BOint H places, where it is no unusual thins H 10 find not more than six pounds ot H meat in a town of 6.C1OO persons Nei HL crtheless, it is a country that Is be-H! be-H! jyinninc to pet on its feet, a country HT that is beginning to hope, j Tho vast improvement in cond'.-H cond'.-H on; is lnrRelv due to American ef-T1 ef-T1 fort." said Lr Bogan. "The situation H; is still desperate enough. But if Po-H Po-H land could stop fighting (she is today Hi ihe soldier of the entente), if she Hf could dispose of her industrial prod- Hr uc,s- and if she coukl ,inc! credIt' sn0 Hi could besln all over again to live. The Hr remarkable betterment of the situation Hi lJ5 already reflected in the aUitude of H I the people. Poland is the land of hun- HP gry optimists." i i Dr. Bogcn told in detail of the Hj'l change in conditions in Poland since Hh tfie war ended, and of the altered opin- n ion of America on me pari 01 we iiw Kj j P "I reached Poland In February, go- J ing over with the food commissioner I Btaff." he said. "At that time, the Wi country was in terrible distress. Tbe H lood conditions were d'i" Me"- ji than once 1 have seen people w ho have H'', lived on grass and nettle leaves for Hi six weeks at a time. Thousands of Hj, children literally did not know what bread was, nor had they ever tasted Hr' milk. Naturally there was a little H; ; food, suf-ficieut for those who had H; enough money to pay the exorbitant 1 prices asked in the cities, but awa Hp from these centers starvation was geu- r I HI HI I "Everywhere there were youngsters Hn who wero only skin and boue, young-Hjd young-Hjd sters who were bloated with starva ti lion, youngsters who couldn't walk be Hi' cause of lack of lood It was almost k unbearable to see such children. Hj 'It did not tal.- long to relieve the Hi desperate situation in the cities, but Hju the task of getting food to the more Hl remote regions, such as the Bjlshoik Si front east of the Bug, Galicia and oth' I er distant sections, was a stupendous H( r.ne. The work was complicated by the fact that transportation was almost kji impossible, and the people near the front were forbidden to move from one place to another The joint distribu- 1 uon committee has today forty hug nitomobile trucks in Poland, but la.-1 February there were none. Hf I "By the end of March, transporta- 1 Bii tion was less difticult, some auiomo- j f biles had been secured, and the dis- j iribution of food began to be Bystema l, , tized. But the American relief admin- 1 istration and the Jewish agency ha I a I, new problem. What about tho ehil M' ilren? They were not getting nearly Mj enough to eat, not even enough to "Lieutenant Maurice Hate of the American relief administration and I j got together one niqht In Warsaw, and ! 'diked over the horror of. seeing so many starviug children around, with-r with-r out being able to do nearly enough to help them. After our conversation wo '.'.bled our organizations in ih United States, and the result was that the Children's Relief Bureau was organ zed, under the auspices of the American Amer-ican relief administration, with Lieu tenant Pate at its head. "It is perhaps the most wonderful j organization that has grown out of the ' war, and the most far-reaching in its etfects. since there is no doubt at all Lhal it saved the children of the na- j "Kitchens for the children are now Hi found everywhere. In them a million children every day get one meal, about a third as much food as a child should have a day. There are separate kitch-l kitch-l ns for the children of each national-it;. national-it;. , After these kitchens were opened, we watched the unfortunate youngsters young-sters of Poland turn from mere little packets of skin and bones, with old ad facer., back into normal young ten -nin, before our very ryes. "The present plan Is in continue the u maintenance of the kitchens until j ext Juno. Fully 325,000 of the million I youngsters are Jewish children, fed under Jewish auspices and the food tcrved is strictly 'kosher.' A round million children who are now alive and H ! fairly healthy would most surely be 'j I .1 I . I,,, in. , I dead but for the Children's Relief Bureaus." Ry Ma ol this year conditions be-gan be-gan to show a decided Improvement, Dr Bogan said. Up to that time, there j were no rattle in Poland, apparently Now one saw a few 'cows here and i there in rural districts. It was whlsp-ered whlsp-ered that they they had been hidden I in the woods all during the war. i Transportation was a little less difficult dif-ficult , and crops began to be planted 'o an encouraging extent There had Beemed 1o be no automobiles in Po-land, Po-land, and now a few began to be seen in the large caios Food was sent over , I under tin- American relief admlnlstra-1 I tlon for the people until July. After that the Children's Belief Bureau was left to better conditions. The situation was still desperate ' It w as made so because of the many ' political parties In Poland, and be-j j cause of the depreciation in value of ; i the money Since that time it has dc j I predated still more. Today 36 mark: are worth only a dollar. Ju February la dollar was worth eight msrks. I "The situation among fhe Jews wn particularly bad. because they were entirely en-tirely an urban population, or the trad, ers in rural settlements In Inland.! Jews were not allowed to own fauns 'and till the ground. "To make a brief summary of thei work of the joint distribution commit tee, it has organised committees all through Poland, to give relief or supplies sup-plies to destitute Jew ish families. It i has contributed to the American relief re-lief administration's children 9 fund. It has helped a great deal With mrt trans-, portation of food to territories jus' ao 1 quired, or regions difficult m reach, "Perhaps 'be most important thing lit has done for the Jewish children of ' Poland Is its oponinc of milk stations 'everywhere. The Jewish children. lik j, I the others, w ere setting one meal a jdayat the children's relief kitchens, I but one meal was not enouch. They (wore especially in need of tats. m n We gave out soap, the children ate :. It wa6 no fine scented soap, at tint, j but the plain "army issue" soap, ordi-' nan laundry soap, that we had bought ' for them. In two weeks a child who couldn't! istand because malnutrition had soft-, ened his bones, could walk and play. (This was only watered condensed 'milk, ten glasses of it made cv.it of one small can. "The joint distribution committee 'has opened sixteen milk stations in j Warsaw alone. ;-.t which 32,000 oh.iL 1 dren a day are getting milk. It has: opened organised a flying relief squad-j iron of motor trucks, over which flics the American flag, to carry curses and doctors and hardtack and p ilk to the new parts of Poland, fast os j they are regained from the enemy. I "The joint distribution committee In 'Poland has also been ?iving 22.000, 'families in Warsaw, or 72 000 persons, ! food and other supplies every day for, 'twelve weeks It did the same thi"g for 59 000 families in Lod." The spirit of Poland ;uid esp aai;; ' of the down-trodde n Polish Jews, is a 'remarkable thing, Dr. Boyn declared. "I take off my hat to Fnem," no said "They are wonderful. They ojld not survive if they were to look upon real-i real-i ities as they really are. Cut they don't. ' The Jews of Poland scm ..o live wrapped in mysticism which i".er: Bl u-vatlon u-vatlon and terrible sorrow unnot ;1 ways penetrate. On 'ho faces of tup hungriest of them, you often see a kind of hope. This is true of the Pojeu to a certain extent They go i wort cheerfully in thi ii fields, Wd when you ask them if they are suit thit their crops will come up, ;ind that Poland will be fed, and that the lorn land will be bersell again; l-hey i-ok nt you with astonishment and scorn "With people like these tn It. there seems to Die no doubt that Poland h;s within lvr border- the potentialities of a groat, powerful and noble nation" |
