New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-12-07
Author Says Condition Is
Worse than During
Messina Quake.
LETTER TO AMERICAN
WOMEN'S RELIEF FUND
Declares Many Will Bless Amer.
lea and Americans for
Their Noble Work.

has written the following letter to
John Moffat, representative OF the
American Women's War Relief Fund,
describing the pathetic condition OF the
refugees in England who are being
aided by the American Women's War
Relief Fund:
"The Bath Club,
London, November 10, 1914
Dear Mr.. Motfat:
~ have Just seen .he little book
issued by your committee IN New york.
and venture TO write few words ,
tell you how very great the misery
over here in Europe is. When | was
in Sicily, Immediately after the earth
quake at Messina, | looked into the
depths and thought realized the worst
evils that can befall humanity. l
know now that it is more terrible to
suffer at the hands of men than to be
overwhelmed by a CONFUSION OF nature.
The horrors of this great war cannot
we'll be overstated. Many of them can
not be stated at all. | do not draw my
information from the newspapers, but
from conversations | have had with
British and Belgian soldiers, wounded
or invalided; with friends who have
been in Belgium and France IN con-
nection with the hospital work, and
with Belgian refugees in England, OF
whom | have met a great many. They
all tell the same story. Women and
children have suffered and are suffer
ing through this war more than they
have suffered before in our time. Too
much cannot be done for them. II
will be difficult or impossible to do
enough.
Immediately after the fall of Ant
werp / was at Folkestone. 1t was like
foreign town. The streets were
thronged with wandering fugitives-
whole families, old women with thin
shawls wrapped around them, little
girls with white faces and wide eyes
that had seen things no children should
see. tiny things just able TO toddle,
babies of few months old, and some
Just born. Many of these people had
lived at Liege. From Liege they had
fed to Brussels, from Brussels to Ant
werp and finally from Antwerp to Eng
land. One woman with whom | talked
had a baby with her four months
old, who had made this tragic pilgrim !
age pursued by the roar of German |
guns. The father? The woman did |
not know where the father was. The |
house that had been home? She thought |
it was burned down. Now mother and |
baby were in England, and mother was |
just wondering what would happen to |
them. She made no complaint. After |
telling ne her story, she simply said, /
4 have come here. One hopes to be |
safer here
No Hope for Future.
"There are thousands of such women /
as this. homeless, destitute, in igno- |
rance of the fate of those dearest to /
them. | met a young Belgian in Can
terbury. She was married to an officer .
i'm command of district in the Congo.
They came to Belgium on a six
months holiday. Scarcely had they
arrived when war broke out. When |
met this lady her husband was fight
ing at Namur Soon afterward he was
badly wounded. They conveyed him to
a hospital at Antwerp, and his wife
hurried there to see him. She arrived
to find him dying, and Antwerp being
bombarded by the German army. He /
died just as the city fell. The young
widow fed, succeeded in reaching Eng
land and is now lodging in Faversham,
q small country town near Canterbury,
waiting what? What can these
people hope for in the future? Bel
GUM has been turned into vast
fortress by the Germans. and is likely
during the winter TO be the scene Of
more bloody fighting than it has seen
yet.
IAN old peasant woman whom | met
in camp of seventy refugees among
the hop gardens of Kent said to me,
But, my dear monsieur, Belgium no
49,
where she had passed her whole life
ground. When | left it for the last
time, monsieur, | walked among dead
bodies she said. staring at me with
her light blue eyes, which seemed al
ways asking some question.
ar a money changers shop at Folke-
stone, where ! had gone TO change
eighty francs into English money for
four young Belgians, ! encountered a
very old lady dressed in black, with
hair. As she spoke scarce
Iy any English. | helped her to do her
business, the changing of tiny sun
Of money, which was all she had been
able to bring with her when she fled
before the advancing hosts. She had
one possession with her in Folkestone.
She told me that she had been spending
the evening of her days in her home on
the outskirts of Antwerp, with my
beautiful pictures. All, monsieur, |
had some very beautiful pictures!
When the Germans were coming | cut
the best Rubens, a real Rubens, mon
sieur. out of its frame, and fled with
il. | have it here in little room they
nave given me in Folkestone.'
Rich in Comparison TO Many.
"This old lady is rich in comparison
With many of the fugitives. There are
thousands who have nothing except the
.lothes they are wearing. In Folkestone
saw many almost starving people be-
ny fed with milk and bread at the re-
option Offices, where several English
women and men have been doing their {
,est for them and where Nine. Cody, {
Ierself Belgian refugee, has for manv
weeks been working all day, and often
Turing the night, trying to find tempo
ary homes for them and to alleviate :
heir suffering, mental and physical. d
after the earthquake in Messina the {
Misery was so widespread and so ap-
Ealing that one was almost stunned by .
t. | remember seeing two thousand
and almost naked people being
anded at soldiers port, and that
anne day. as | travelled along the coast,
meeting train after train packed with
he homeless, the wounded, the mad
md the dead--(for there were trucks
ull of corpses; | remember visiting
,lessine while the soldiers were still :
digging people out from the ruins).
inc was almost obsessed by the thought,
atural, perhaps, but dangerous, What
$ the good of trying to do hnythingH ,
he misery is too great too widespread
In, effort Of mine Will be useless OF
curse, this thought had to be driven
'ut. A great, continued effort was