"HAPPY" BELGIUM !

Marlborough Express, Volume LI, Issue 84, 11 April 1917, Page 3

"HAPPY" BELGIUM !

TO THE. EDITOR,

x Sir,—ln your issue of April.3rd there appeared among 'the cable news a statement by a Mr AVhitaker to the Times to the > effect that the population, of Belgium, instead of being in a starving condition, is enjoying tlie greatest prosperity, and that the people there, since the German occufjation,' have had the time of their ives. What a shock.this will be to us, and how we have misjudged the kindly nature of the Hun! Are we^ also to believe that the German submarine commander, when he sank theLusitania, only' acted in self-defence, and that he, made , tlie. most heroic efforts to save the lives of all on board; that the sinking of hospital ships is a: most sportsmanlike proceeding, and worthy of the highest traditions of chivalry and Humanity; that the Crown Prince has gathered together' a vast collection of platp, pictures, and valuables of all sorts iii Belgium, not a^ loot, buf, merely to take care of /them for their owners for the duration of the war ? I will here a<Jmit that 1 never have had' any doiibts about his returning them at the ond of the war.- f It seems to me, Sir, we have been, wasting our energy raising 'funds for Belgian relief when we might have so well gathered in a substantial sum and made a "public recognition to those gallant German doctors, at the Ruhleben prisoners' camp, who, with the most remarkable self-sacrifice ever yet ■ recorded of doctors, cheerfully evacuated, their quarters at the camp in order to make room for patients stricken with.: typhoid,1 and not only that, but they left the prisoners and patients entire freedom Of action within the camp, and refused to intrude their,: presence upon them under any circumstances whatever. The statement emanating from JVIr Whitaker may be correct, and it may. not. Though not a. great salt consumer, f. niusl , confess' to df great liking for that condiment _ when consuming aiiy news concerning the war that ft not:*official. Who, by i:he way, is' Mr Whitaker ?, Is he a relative of yon Bethmann-Hollweg, or is he one of those unfortunate newspaper correspondents who, having waited'in vain at the\base for,news to send his paper, has suddenly burst out on his own account like a meteor and illuminated the whole world; and

revealed the fact that the Horrors

of Belgium \have only been a nightr (,?nare' after all? :AVhat a dreadful dream we had about *'poor Nurse. Cavelli - Nm\|, it is clear that if the" statement made by Mr Wliitalcer is true, the Imperial Grovernnierit,' the Neutral Belief Cbrnmittee, the ~.N.Z. Government, and the/ Belgian /Relief Societies in ;this country have been engaged in a huge fraud. Only the other day I received a jtelegram from the . Minister of Internal Affairs stating that relief in Belgium was more urgently .needed than ever, and I th'nk the state of. the civil population in those parts of France from which the Huns nave been driven out should be sufficient to enable us to

-•see how.'they treatjuhe inhabitants of occupied territory.' Here, at; anj' rate, -the, protecting hand of the German is-not so gentle rts it might be. Since the American relief workers left Belgium, grave doubts have existed 'in the ' mind's of many as to

whether the Huns will refrain from

interfering with the Butch/workers as they did lYom molesting the Americans and the food supplies distributed by them. Owing to increased taxation people are only, too ready to seize on any rubjbish in the papers as an exciiae for not giving, while, if Mr Wh'taker's statement is true, the^ Government should not ask the Patriotic Societies to raise more money for a fraud. I think it is desirable that the Government should at once issue a statement on the ; whole question of Belgian • relief ' through the press, and I trust, Sir, \ that both your valuable journal and I the Member for the district" will see : I that such a statement is forthcoming, : I otherwise Belgian Rolief will/become I a thing of tbe past., ' '~ *■ ;■ I . F. C. FELL. , I Nikaxi Bay, . ; ' 7/4/17.. "' . ' , .. ' ; • [Sir Thomas Mackenzie has .already •cabled to the New Zealand Govern-, ; i ' ment refuting Mr Whitaker's asser- ', tions. It is not many weeks since this same Mr Whitaker .was accusing - the Germans of i?endinu emissaries to : Tloubaix (\vliere Mr Whitriker" for^ a ■| time had liis place of residence) for ' the purpose of .nixing rye "flour and sawdust with, the -flour sent from

America for.tho'relief of the starving

people—with the result, he stated, that many died. He ald-o recounted other '..incidents which were directly at variance with his later assertion -

that the Belgians were living, as it were, oh, the fat of the land. His statement that production in Belgium was at almost its pre-war level, / even if true, is worth absolutely nothing, for Belgium, a country about the sizo of Canterbury, is almost entirely an industrial country, and with a. population of eight millions to teed had to import a very large proportion of her food. It is . '■. a great pity, in our opinion,^ that the authorities in London allowed the report of this person's utterances to be cabled, us a lie, once it has a fair „ | start, taifos a great deal of catching. —Ed.]