The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-03
GRAPHIC PICTURE OF DESO[AT|ONOF OF
 STRICKEN BELGIUM
Englishman Returning from Trip to War Zone Writes of Awful Completeness
 of Destruction

1 IontDn. OctoDef 2.-tlU.uJ 3. m.)-A
 graphic picture of the desolation of Bel
 gum was brought to London yesterday by ]. H. Whitehouse, member of Parlia- ment from Lanarkshire, who has just re-
 turned nom tour around Antwerp to assist ln relief measures.
 Mr. Whitehouse made the journey out side Antwerp with two military cars, at tended by Belgian officials. Describing the damage which he says the Belgians had to inflict upon themselves to sup plement the defenses of Antwerp, he said Hundreds of thousands of trees had been removed, so as to afford no cover to the enemy. All houses hac been blown up or otherwise destroyed. Later we passed through the country which had been flooded as a further measure of defense. The damage resulting from these precau- | tionary measures alone amounted to s5O0oo,OCo.
 Tn the villages all ordinary life was
 arrested. Women and children were standing or sittins dumb and patient, by | the roadside.
 Newspaper Accounts
 "I had read newspaper accounts of the
 destruction of Termonde, and had seen
 photographs. but they had not conveyed any realization of the horI of what
 actually happened Termonde a few
 weeks ago was a beautiful city of about | f6, GOO inhabitants, a city which contained | buildings of surpassing interest. | q went through street after street, 1 square after square, ana I found every house entirely destroyed with all it's con tents. It was not the result Of lombard ! ment; it was systematic destruction. In each house separate bomb had been placed which had blown up the interior
 and set fire to the contents. All that | remained were portions of the outer
 walls, still falling, and inside the cinders
 of the contents or the buildings. Not a 1 shred of furniture or anything else re-
 mained.
 of the popluation 1 thought that not a | soul remained. l was wrong, for as we turned into square where the wreck of what had been one of the most beautiful 1 of Gothic churches met my eyes. blind
 woman and her daughter groped among
 the ruins. They were the sole living crea- ! trues in the whole town.
 Some Not Burned
 Shops, factories, churches and houses | all were destroyed. One qualification only ] have l to make of this statement. Two
 or perhaps three houses bore the German command in chalk that they were not to | be burned Where destroyed house had obviously contained articles of value loot 1 ing had taken place.
 'I inquired what had become of the 1 popluation. It was a question to which no direct reply could be given. They had fled in all directions Some had reached l Antwerp but a great number were wan dering about the country, panic stricken and starving Many What had happened at Termonde was 1 similar to what had happened in other 1 parts of Belgium under the military occu- | patton of Germany. "The result is that l conditions have been set up for the civil
 ian population throughout the occupied | territory of unexampled misery"
 Many Belgians have reached this coun- l try. Others remain wandering about Bel guim, fiocking into other towns and vl- ! lages or fleeing to points across the Dutch | frontier.
 The whole life of the nation has been arrested. Food supplies which would crdi- narily reach the civilian population are | being taken by the German troops for | their own support The peasants and poor
 are without the necessities of life and l starvation conditions grow more acute every day. Even where there is a supply | of wheat available the peasants are not | allowed to use their windmilis owing to the German fear they will send signals to | the Belgian army.
 We are, therefore. face to face with | condition which rarely if ever has been
 faced in the history of the world-an en- tire nation in state of famine and that 1 within half a days journey of our own | shores.
 I Completeness of Destruction
 The completeness of the destruction
 In each individual case was explained
 to me later by the Belgian ministers
 who described numerous appliances the
 German soldiers carried for destroy
 ing property. Not only were various
 hand bombs carried, but each soldier
 was supplied with a quantity of small
 black discs. little bigger than a six
 penny piece.
 l "I saw some of these discs which 1 had been taken from German soldiers
 on the battlefield. These were de-
 scribed as composed of compressed ben
 zine. When lighted they. burn bril- liantly for a few minutes and are suf- | ficient to start whatever fire is nec- 1 essary after the explosion of a bomb "To the conditions of famine and homelessness which exist on such a stupendous scale there must be added
 one which is bad--the mental panic
 many survivors suffer l understand