The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1915-07-30
Poland is NoW Enduring
Her Second Great Tragedy

some semblance of freedom. This ans
the laws of compulsory military SCI
vice brought almost a million Pole
into the Austro-Gernan ranks to figh
against their brothers in the Russian
ranks. And yet in 10th Austria an
Prussia the overwhelming majority O
the Poles are at heart ssolidly with tn
kingdom of Poland
When Mr.. Gibson of the Rockefelle
Foundation returned from Poland h
told Miss Alma-Tadefna of the terribl
scenes he had witnessed in the stricl
en- regions. Together hey planne
for extensive measures Of relief. to b
sent through Germany with the a.
prevail of the British Foreign Office
Germany consented, but the official
here doubted the good faith of Gel
many's letting large supplies OF foo
pass across Germany to Poland An
so the negotiations halted and nov
another plan is on foot to get SUPPLE
into Poland by way of Switzerland
without passing through German
hands.
One of the scenes Mr. Gibson pic
tured was a Polish village where b
passed a cemetery toward dusk ans
saw a crowd collected. On inquiry h
learned it was the point funeral o
twelve children who had died tina
day; and he learned further that this
was the normal average in this an
other stricken villages chill
dren a day dying of starvation. A
one point he noted an old woman who
had crawled sixteen kilometers to ge.
a handful of black bread. Thes'
were merely a few instances out of T
great number which red him to tn
conclusion that the desolation in the
wake of the armies in Poland was
greater than that in Belgium, where
he had made a similar inspection.
The Polish student group here is
also receiving frequent mail advices
from their friends in the various parts
of Poland. On of the last posted of
these students letters summed up re,
cent advices which got through as fol
lows:
"Out of $4,000 square kilometers
in old Poland, $4,000 square kilo
| meters have now been captured by the
Austro-German armies. The depart
ments which have suffered most are
Kaliska, Piotrowska, Kielecka, Rad
owska, suwolska. and Plocka; also
four districts kos the government OF
Lenisynssss4sy districts of Warsaw
which. is department half the size Of
Wales in addition to the city of War
saw, four districts of Lubelskic; ant
five in Chelmsky. Out of 100000 in
habitants of this region, 100000 have
suffered. OF $4,000 villages, $500 OIL
about 20 per cent are practically de
stroyed, and another 1000 villages arc
completely leveled toAthe ground, no
trace of them remaihing beyond thu
heaps of smoulderins rubbish ant
ruin .S sSssss:k
TIL peasantry are pictured as NOV
ing about like great tribes. OF gypsie.
over the blackened fields, carrying anc
pushing their scant belongings il
small carts. Miss Alma-Tedema give:
a graphic picture of this wholesale
| desolation: Industry is at a stand
| still; millions are out of work; the
| meadows and arabic lands are furrow
ed by deep trenches, riddled will
! shellholes; the same tracts have beer
swept over and over by immense bat
tie waves; nothing remains. The barn.
and ricks are burned; the horses ant
and cattle all stolen or slain: ruiz
everywhere. The women and children
have been driven out into the open
They cover in the woods; the manse
the manor house, the old castle in the
park, all are destroyed; there is ne
one to help, there is nowhere to fly
to, nothing to do but to hide in the
ruins, in woods or in hollows, gnaw
ing roots and the bark of trees, while
the children shiver and starve tt
death" .
And this from one of the best in
formed Polish authorities in England
the energetic young woman official Of
the Polish committee, the bearer oil
one of England's great names, and the
center into which pours all this mass
of information concerning the colossal
tragedy of Poland.
There are many other enthusiastic
Polish workers here, notably Nine
Syanislawa Bevan, the Polish wife OF
the prominent English painter, Robert