The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-01-13
BELGIAN BABIES
DYING FOR LACK
OF MILK SUPPLY
American Relief Commission
Purposes to Send Over Ship
load of Condensed Kind
STARVED MOTHERS
CAN'T NURSE CHILDREN
No Cows Milk To Be Had in
Country for Love or
Money

NEW YORK, Jan. 1S.--Will Irwin,
who recently returned from Belgium
and is now managing the publicity
campaign OF the American Commits
sion for Relief in Belgium has writ
ten an article entitled THE Babes of
Belgium" which has been published
in pamphlet form by the commission
for distribution throughout the coun-
try, with view 10 arousing a special
interest In the milk feature" of the
commission work. Besides sending
shiploads of food for grown-up per-
sons. IL has been found that there Is
urgent need of milk for the babies,
and the commission hopes to send
over an entire shipload OF condensed
milk within the Iext week
Mr.. Irwin thus describes conditions
at Calais and other Belgian cities:
AT the concentration yards they
sat in family groups, the children
huddled about their mothers and
grandmothers like chickens around
hens. No child among them laughed
or played; they were too weary for
that: but no child cried. | was trying
to have speech with these refugees
and found them too nsrveless to give
any account OF their adventures when
an ambulance arrived
"A nurse and physician descend
ed. A woman rose from distant
group and joined them. She carried
in her arms bundle wrapped In rags.
The slant Of her back showed that
the bundle contained a child--there Is
an attitude of motherhood which none
can mistake.
The women In the nearest group
followed the pantomime With their
fearless, hopeless eyes.
What Is it?' / asked.
For a time none Of the women an
swered. Then one spoke In dead
tone:
Her baby is dead she said. She
had no milk in her
"All that happened on the fringe OF
Belgium to the refugees who had
made their way out and were nearing
safety and enough comfort to keep
soul and body together.
ct could multiply instances from
the observation OF others. There was,
for example, the group of 200 refu'
gees who arrived in Holland early In
November. They carried with them
four dead, newborn babies.
ut was the same story which one
hears everywhere. The mothers were
so reduced by privation that they
had no milk OF their own. AS for
cows milk, It was not to be had for
any money.
add another picture. brought out
by an American from Belgium. He
stood one morning by the back door
Of a German cook camp, watching
group Of Belgian women grubbing
through the trash heap piled up be-
hind the camp. All these women
carried babies.
"what are they DOING he asked
German sergeant with whom he had
struck up acquaintance.
"'Scraping our condensed milk
cans said the sergeant. It's the
only way to get milk for their babies.
I've seen them run their fingers
around a can which looked as bright
as a new coin and hold them into the
babies mouths to suck. My COM
pany.' he added has been getting
along without milk in its coffee and
giving II TO these women. We've
received no orders to the contrary
and we're mostly family men. Bnt
we're an exception, and it doesn't go
very far
"Here is another recent picture
from stricken Brussels that gay.
dainty, lively city in old-times-the
city whose smiling people called 1t
petit Paris. The scene is the once
busy. pleasant boulevard Bischof-
sheim. A woman collapses on a
bench set along the sidewalk after
the fashion of the Greater Paris. In
her arms is a baby. A child staggers
along, clinging to her apron The
womans face is blue and yellow; she
is on the verge OF collapse. The baby.
surely not over Ave months, has a
pale, lead-colored skin. It's mouth
is open as though set that way. It's
eyes are closed
1.-TWO women of Brussels pass this
unhappy group. They hurriedly ex-
change some words. turn back TO the
woman on the bench. Then one
stands guard while the other hastens