Evening star., 1915-02-12
G|VESF|RST-HAND STORY
OF FEEDING WAR VICTIMS
Capt. J. F. Lucey First Member of
Belgian Relief Commission to
Return to This Country.
Assistance Also Being Provided for
Non-Combatants in North of
France, He Says.

NEW YORK, February ia first
hand story of the activities of the COM
mission for relief in Belgium and of
the races to get food through the fam
stricken towns in the interior to
beat starvation is brought by Capt. ].
F. Lucey, the first member of the COM
mission to return to this country. Capt.
Lucey, who is former United States
Army officer and widely known in the
oil district in the south and west. ar
rived on the Cunard liner Orduna Tues
day.
The commission is now not only feed
ing Belgium, but is also providing as
sistance for the non-combatant suf-
ferers in the remote districts to the
north of the Argonne region in France,
the captain said.
Capt. Lucey was in Europe when the
distress in Belgium became acute, and
Immediately organized transporta-
tion system for the distribution of food.
while 1 did not have many cargoes
of food to distribute at that time, the
job, l soon saw, meant that l would
have to do pioneer transporta ton work
canals were full of debris: the canal
boats were no longer running. The
railroad systems were out of order
and had before me the job of not only
many cases even to find food itself"
Germans Gave Valuable Assistance.
Capt. Lucey praised the Germans for
their cooperation with the commits
sion and declared they had given valu-
able assistance. LAS soon as the Ger
mans understood what We were trying
to do they were very helpful to US.
he said. "In the past few weeks they
have been unusually helpful. On one
occasion during the first two weeks in
December, when we had no food our
selves to deliver into Belgium, and
when the plight of the Belgians was
oppressive, l applied to the Germans
for food, and would probably have
gotten it had not the Netherlands step
ped in and loaned the commission 10000
tons.
I'VE got word one night that Liege
was starving That very night ship
came in. We hurried enough food to
fill fifty cars into Belgium that same
night, with Capt. Sunderland, United
States military attache at The Hague,
escorting it, He got as far as Liege.
and then went forward to the German
headquarters and was loaned special
engine by the German general in com
mand, and exactly twenty-four hours
after the call for food was received
our train of fifty carloads rolled into
the Liege station.
1--WE have had many exciting races
with our food to beat starvation In
December. when there were bread riots
in Brussels. We got our first canal boat
loaded to that point. To-Day the COM
of Belgium. One o. these places is
Charleroi We are delivering food almost
on the firing Ifne. particularly at Bruges.
THE princi tality of Luxemburg has re-
quested the commission to feed Its peo-
pie. through American Minister Van
Dyke at The Hague. We have been re-
quested by the French to send food into
remote d stricts that lay to the north
of the Argonne region, and We are get
beuge and Lille
Great Difficulties Encountered.
Describing the difficulties Of minister
'ng to the stricken people early in the
war. Capt. Lucey said:
"When we first began our work in
Belgium the people did not know who
we were nor what we wanted. They
thought we were trying to sell them
something. Many Of them had never
heard of the United States and did not
know that there existed a class Of peo-
pie who would send across the seas free
shipIoads of food to them. Today they
understand
THE commission is feeding 5000
babies in Brussels, where there are
baby canteens supervised by doctors
and nurses.
Another thing we have done for
the Belgians. We have educated them
to know pork and beans. They are
simply crazy in Belgium about Amer
ican pork and beans. They are also
learning something about American
canned goods and of our cornmeal.
1.-The big impression carry out
of Belgium Is the humanizing effect of
hardship The Dutch simply won't let
anybody help them feed the Belgian
refugees in Holland, and have lately
'organized a commission of their own
for cooperation with ours. The Bel
gians themselves are absolutely un-
selfish.