Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1915-02-19
BELG|UM'S PICTURE
COMMISSION SENT BY ROOKIE.
TELLER FOUNDATION TO IN
VEsTleATE MAKES REPORT.
HER INDUSTRIES PARALyZED
Population Reduced by 100000 as Re
suit of War-Homes Laid Low and
Farming Districts Devastated
No Outside Communication.

New -Belgium's population has
been reduced by about 100000 as a re-
suit of the war, and her condition pre-
sents a situation without parallel in
history, says report issued Monday
by the Rockefeller foundation from its
war relief commission sent to investi-
gate the war upon noncombatants. It
is the first report from this commits
sion, which went to Belgium last No
vember.
IdIeness Greatest Problem.
After detailing how means of trans
portation, communication and banking
exchange have been destroyed, com
merce and industry paralyzed. homes
and other buildings laid low the agri-
cultural districts devastated and the
food supply virtually cut off, the re-
port says;
yet, if one is to understand the
Belgian problem, it is perhaps neces-
sary to emphasize, not the restitution
of a few hundred thousand, but the
suddenly enforced inactivity of a
strong and healthy nation of 100000.
This is what makes the Belgian
situation a thing without parallel in
history"
After stating that there are 800 600
Belgian refugees in Holland and 100,-
600 in England, the report says that
the number of people who still are in
Belgium, but who have been driven
out of their homes, has not yet been
estimated. The army, it says, has
drawn off 100000 men.
OF the destruction of homes and
property the report says:
Children Born in Pigsties.
I'VE found people living in cellars
under the ruins of their homes; in
lofts over the COW stalls; saw children
that had been born in hencoops and
pigsties and learned of one man who
considered that he was doing we'll
when the population of his poultry
house was reduced from % to Is refu
gees"
The destruction of stock is of great
er Importance than the destruction OF
houses, the report declares.
Regarding the agricultural situation
the commission found that autumn
planting has somehow been done and
that it is conceivable that Belgium
} may continue to raise most of her OWL
potatoes, fruits and fresh vegetables.
Everybody is trying to help every
body else.
I'm France we found that it was
clearly the policy of the German occu
patton, behind the fighting lines, t.
= promote the planting of next years
crops and to spare mich COWS anC
= breeding animals"
In connection with the destruction
of houses and property, the repor
/ says, no estimates can be obtained o
the total, either of the military requisi
tons, or levies, or of the destruction
of property, but that this total mus
be enormous.
while the German army was fight
ing its way across Belgium" it con
$ tinues, 1.-The soldiers of both sides tool
r poultry, food supplies, wines and bed
t ding to the limit of their immediate
desires, or beyond
;. "Since then the German occupation
D has requisitioned grain, canned goods
= food supplies, livestock and horse
, from towns and countryside"
O The commission found that the des
! truction of tools and implements ca
!. not be estimated.
e The population, the commission re
e counts, is denied the use of commun
cation with the outside world excep
through German channels.