OCR Text |
Show FOOD SUPPLIES TlJBECUT OFF GERMANS SAID TO HAVE THREAT-ENED THREAT-ENED TO STOP THE RELIEF SERVICE IN BELGIUM. Belgians Ordered to Immediately Resume Re-sume Former Activities, Under Penalty of Having All Charitable Charit-able Organizations Closed. Brussels. A proclamation issued by the German governor of Brussels on November 6 threatens that unless the Belgian people return immediately and resume their former activities Germany will close all charitable organizations or-ganizations which now feed the idle populace. Well informed Brussels residents claim the German contention that the Belgian people are unwilling to resume re-sume their activities is unfounded. The Belgians, they say, are willing enough to work, but this is impossible, since all their automobiles and horses have been taken by the German army, making it impossible for them to haul coal and raw material for the factories. fac-tories. The Belgians, it is declared, fished the miserable, half-blinded horses ouf of the mines, fed them and set them, to work; but no sooner were these horses strong enough to pull carts than the Germans confiscated them for the army. Now the factories are without coal and iron or raw materials. mater-ials. The industry, which was enormous enor-mous in many parts of Belgium, has ueen ruined. The farmers have millions mil-lions of beets rotting in the storehouses store-houses through inability to transport them to the factories. The workmen, Belgians maintain are willing to work for one-fourth ol their ordinary wages, but the factory owners, unable to provide the necessary neces-sary material, have been obliged to dismiss dis-miss the men. |