The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1915-08-04
Arizona Boy Who Was Oxford Stu
dent on Visit Here Relates
His Experience as Re-
lief Worker
FOUND MUCH REAL
SUFFERING AT FIRST
Supplies Distributed; Corn Meal a
Puzzle to En-; Victims Of War
Grateful and Lift Hats to
American Flag

Walter Lowdermilk a graduate OF
Oxford university, England, this
spring, who has been the guest of Her
bert White for several days. was with
the American relief commission in
Belgium for two months this summer
and is able 10 recount many interest
ing experiences In telling OF conditions
in the warning countries.
When the commission was first or
ganized and men were needed to carry
on its work number Of Oxford stu
dents volunteered their services. They
entered Belgium from Rotterdam and
going through Antwerp to Brussels
we're stopped by no less than eleven
sentries. When asked regarding the
conditions In Belgium, Mr.. Lowder
milk said.
III is hard to make a single s-ate-
ment that will cover the subject, but
we can say that now the Belgsans are
being fed When we first went into
Belgium We encountered much actual
suffering from want Of food, but the
commission under the leadership nf
Mr.. Hoover has relieved such cond.
lions and when we left there we're
supplies on hand for three ~eeks.v
After spending week in Brussels
studying the methods Of distribution.
the students were sent out in twos to
various parts OF Belgium and southern
France. They represented the Ameri-
can minister In receiving shipments Of
food. and saw that not a morsel was
confiscated. In some cases the flour
was given direct to the Belgians, In
others. they we're given bread checks,
which they could exchange for bread
at the bakers Some OF she southern
states Of America contributed corn
meal, and as II was the first of that
commodity which the Belgians had
ever seen. they were at loss what to
do with 1t. Many OF them ground IL
finer and mixed 1t with their flour.
After that the commission sent out
recipes with the corn meal.
MIR. Lowdermilk stated that the
Americans were treated royally in
Belgian. He was furnished with
high power motor car and passing Bel
gians took off their hats to the Ameri-
can flag on the hood.
During his travels through the de-
vastated country, the relief worker
was often only a few miles from the
firing line. He told of seeing holes in
the earth. often eight feet deep and as
many as thirty feet wide, torn by the
highly explosive shells.
On his return to England when only
eight miles from Oxford where he had
lived for three years. Mr.. I1owdermilk
was arrested for a German spy beouse
of his foreign accent He was detain-
ed for three hours and by that time the
novelty OF the situation was beginning
to wane. he said.
Mr.. Lowdermilk spent his vacations
in Germany and was there last sum
mer during the mobilization of troops.
He said II was one OF the most inspir-
ing sights he had ever witnessed, that
there was not a dissenting voice lie
also stated that all the best blood / IN
England. including practically all the
college men, we're at the front, and
that it was only the lower ranks who
had not volunteered.
Leaving England July IA on the
steamer Arabic. Mr., Lowdermilk land
ed in the United States on the 2Sd'
He states that the vessel "zig-zagged'
for day and night out of respect 70
submarines.
MIR. Lowdermilk, who was Tor
number of years resident OF Ana
darko. graduated from the UNIVERSITY
Of Arizona in 1912, receiving ceci
Rhodes scholarship to Oxford Thers
he won a first honorary degree IN geol
ogv He was also a member of ths
boating crew, rowing in the Wadhan