Evening star., 1915-04-04
TELLS EXPERIENCES
ON DUTCH BORDER
Mrs. Van Schaick Describes
Trip to MaastriCht, Near
War Zone.
MEETS ERNEST BICKNELL,
DIRECTOR OF RED CROSS
He Describes Terrible Condition
From Fever Plague in Serbia.
Relief Work Under Way.


work and of the work that Ernest p.
BicknelI, national director of the Amer
lean Red Cross, Is doing in staying the
ravages of the plague in Serbia, Mrs.
Julia Romaine Van Schaick has sent a
circular letter addressed to relatives
and friends in this country. The let
ter Is written from the headquarters OF
the war relief commission in Rotter-
dam, under date of March "A, az fol-
lows:
MY dear relatives and friends:
This letter will go to relatives and
friends in New York and parish. fam
lily and friends in Washington, hence
this heading.
Tomorrow the Rotterdam sails for
New York, and if she is not torpedoed
or sunk by a channel mine. you will
receive this.
In the first place 1 want to say that
] am feeling much stronger, and there
fore 1 was able to accompany my hus-
band on one of his recent trips to DIS
tant points in Holland to visit the
refugee towns and look into local con-
ditions of Belgians now quartered IN
them.
Our visit to Maastricht was intense
ly interesting. The city is situated IN
the Dutch province of Limburg COT
Netherlands run down in narrow bot
tie shaped strip of land between Ger
many on the east and Belgium on the
west. Maastricht lies in the bottom
OF the bottle and further up, where the
neck of the bottle might be. the terri
tory is so narrow. only three miles
across, that one can look into both
Germany and Belgium at the same
time. You see from this what dan
ger point this particular po.nt of Hol-
land is, and why much of the Dutch
army is concentrated here now.
Bridge Mined.
I'VE saw great numbers of soldiers
all along this section as our train trav-
eled south to Maastricht. The Mas,
Meuse, river especially was guarded
and new .stone approaches had been
constructed and mines laid underneath
that the bridge might be blown up in
case of invasion. AS we crawled. by
train, carefully over this place, you
can imagine my feelings, and the sense
of relief when safely over
Then we saw fresh trenches, just
dug to be used. II necessary, by the
Dutch. These were the first trenches
/ had seen, as l have not been in Bel
gium. Barbed wire entanglements /
am used to, for / have passed many in
motor car near the Dutch frontier
lines Well, our railway journey down
to Maastrict took four hours. There
we were met by the representatives of
the commission for relief in Belgium
with motor car flying the American
flag.
The town of Maastricht being so
near the Belgian line tabout ten min
utes by motor), the aspect of the place
is more Belgian than Dutch and many
of the store signs are in French, and
many of the inhabitants speak or un-
derstand French.
We had a very entertaining little
group at luncheon that noon, the local
American commission man and another
young American, the representative OF
the same relief commission at Hasselt
Belgium. This latter man had just ar
rived by motor from Belgium. He runs
over the line every few days with his
motor for mail, etc, and both OF these
representatives are well known to the
German authorities and soldiers guard
ing the frontier of Belgium and are
very well treated by them. / speak Of
this, for it is very difficult for other
people to enter or leave Belgium, even
with the best of credentials.
We all exchanged news, the repre-
sentatives from Belgium being particu-
larly glad of news from the outside
world. Then we met the Belgium con-
sui at Maastricht and his mother, very
cultivated and Travelled people. and
learned much of the local conditions
regarding Belgian refugees from them.
where clothing sent from the United
States and Canada-and reshipped by
us in Rotterdam-is kept and distrib-
uted We saw what they had. what was
needed. etc, and also saw a school
composed entirely OF Belgian refugee
children.
Late in the afternoon l rested, while
the dominic went for a ride with the
men of the commission, having pre-
viously gotten a military pass to leave
the city of Maastricht, even though. he
did not intend crossing into Belgium.
Situation Tense.
You see how tense the situation is
down there. That night I said / was
glad we were not stationed at Mas
tricht. II is too much of cul-de- sac,
or trap. for the situation to be quite
comfortable.
Wise. one of the places in Belgium
at the beginning of the war first at
nd deg 10 nj