New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-01-10

SELLS ACRyFEC N q
WORK OF QUI e I
MEN ON THE BEL
CLAN RE LIEF
CONFESSION.

Mr. Bates's wall tell all about each one. and
underneath he has pinned up map OF the
world, with red, black, blue and white thmuo
tacks stuck into il showing where the ships
are each day and what they doing. The
blue are those on their way across TO Rotter-
dam, the white are those unloading there,
the black those loading al some American
port and the red those ships chartered in every
part OF the world on their way over 10 join
the procession.
Most OF these ships are British tramps, but
under the agreement entered into with the bel
ligerents they are absolutely free from moles-
tation while engaged in this mission of mercy.
Each carries a great white flag - her stern
bearing in red letters the words, Commission
for Relief in Belgium" A great banner with
letters large enough 10 be read through the
periscope OF a submarine is strung along each
side of the ship with the same legend. From
the foremost the ship carries burgee fifty feet
long, to the same effect. These vessels are
considered so safe from attack that Lloyds
quotes an insurance rate of only per cent on
them, half the rate which even a neutral ship
must pay with an ordinary commercial cargo,
and does it without commission or profit.
AT THE BELGIAN BORDER HIS TRoU-
BLES BEGIN.
Once in Rotterdam, Captain Lucey and his
staff see to the unloading of the ships and TO
the reshipmcnt of their cargoes in trains or
canal boats destined for the Belgian border
With each train or canal boat goes one OF the
Young Americans sent over for the purpose by
Mr.. Bates. His troubles really begin when the
border is reached. The Dutch train can go no
further, and he must scratch around tor some
means of transporting his consignment TO that
spot in Belgium where the inhabitants are most
in need of it, II is as much as his life IS worth
10 get a train from the Germans. When he
can he uses the canals. But those do not al
ways penetrate to the point he must reach. BY
hook or crook, however, simply because he has
the American indefatigabity, he gets it there,
and then the Comite National do Secours ct
dAlimentation takes it in hand.
This society has issued meal tickets, which
Il punches as the applicant presents himself tor
his allowance. No one person can have more
than two meals day, amounting in all to
dozen ounces Of food. consisting largely OF
bread and beans. When one considers that
the average New Yorker consumes forty-two
ounces of food day, one can see that the Bel
gians will have little opportunity TO overeat.
Theirs is, in fact, only half a soldiers rations,
but to provide each one of the seven million
with even this humble offering every day IS
going TO mean an expenditure for supplies
alone, to say nothing of transportation and the
rest. of millions a month. And the necessity
may last for ten monthsl
Can the VIGOROUSLY charitable heart OF the
American people stand the stran' That is
what Mr.. Hoover and Mr.. Bates and all tho
others are asking themselves daily and hourly,
but in the meantime, in their shirtsleeves,
these men are accomplishing what few other
men in this world could accomplish and help
ing to build monument to their country
which should last until this old planet freezes
tight and is hurled into chaos.