New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-02-08
Berlin Announces Plans
for Relieving Starving
Millions.
HOPED TO PURCHASE
GRAIN IN RUMANIA
International Central Commit
tees Organized to Con-
duct Work.


dom Official announcement was made
to-day that international central com
mittees have undertaken to furnish re-
lief for the civil population of those
parts OF Russian Poland occupied by
the Germans. The relief plans contem-
plate extensive collection of funds for
the purchase OF grain.
Tho cost Of administration. the an
nouncement says, will be borne bv the
Rockefeller Foundation. The Ameri-
can and Spanish Ambassadors at Ber-
lin and Vienna are members Of the
committee.
The Hague, Feb. Via London).-
America and Germany are joining
hands in movements for the relief OF
the civil population in the war-devas-
tated districts of Poland. Represent
atives of the American Red Cross and
The Rockefeller Foundation. after in
vestigation. found this work fully as
essential as relief for Belgium.
While American representatives were
negotiating what amounts to formal
treaty with the German and Austrian
authorities providing guarantees not
only that imported food supplies shall
not be rcquisitioned by the military
authorities, but that all requisitions
shall cease in occupied regions. n Ger
man committee had begun raising
funds TO buy food for people who
officially are their enemies. Prominent
residents OF Berlin subscribed 100000
marks $4,000 as their first contribu-
ton to the fund 10 which Germans
generally were invited TO subscribe in
an appeal issued Saturday.
The German committee was organ
lied Saturday afternoon at meeting
Of the Reichstag. with Prince HAITI
feld-Trachenberg as chairman and DR..
1heodor Lewald. director Of the Min
istry of the Interior. as vice chairman.
After outlining the straits of the pop
ulation and declaring that famine in
food and coal continued. DR.. Lewald
said:
"An international commission has
undertaken TO obtain the necessary
food supplies from neutral countries,
and it is now for Germany, which
can spare no food, TO collect the funds
needed to carry on the work of mercy.
We appeal to our countrymen for as
sistance, therefore, urging each TO do
all he can. The willingness of the
German people to make sacrifices will
not halt at the frontier when it is a
question of saving unfortunate fellow
men from misery and death
The foreign committee which is be-
ing organized to supervise relief work
includes the American and Spanish
ambassadors az Berlin and Vienna, the
arehbishops of Posen and Cracow, DR..
Wickliffe Rose and Ernest Bicknell,
representing the Rockefeller Founda-
ton. After investigating the situation,
the committee believes it will be able
to buy grain and food supplies in Ru-
mania without resorting TO the eX-
pensive method of transporting them
across the sea.
Herbert Hoover, chairman of the
American Commission for the Rehef
of Belgium, is conducting negotiations
with the German authorities 70 obtain
assurances not only that acquisitions
Of food shall cease both III the region
Of occupation and the region of opera
tions in Belgium, but that financial
levies on towns and provinces shail pe
abandoned. The German government
non-requisition of food supplies i'm
ported by the commission or such sup
plies as must be replaced by imports
from America.
Jerome d. Greene, secretary OF the
Rockefeller Foundation, said YESTERDAY
that. while he had received no direct
information to confirm the dispatches
from abroad regarding the particlpa..
ton of the Foundation in the relief of
Poland. he knew that Rockefeller rep
resentatives had been investigating
conditions in that country and con-
ferring with German officials and rep,
resentatives of the American Red
Cross and the American Commission
for the Relief of Belgium.
Until the Foundation had heard from
its representatives abroad, ne SAID IT
was not ready to make any announce
ment.