Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-20
MILLION DEAD,
SERBIA'S TOLL
OF WAR WOES
Sword, Starvation and Dis
ease Take One-Fifth Of
Nations People
OTHERS IN DIRE WANT
By HENRY WOOD

ROME, March 20.--Serbia has lost near
iy 1000, 900 Of her 10000 people through
death by the sword, by starvation, or IN
the recent typhus epidemic the Prince
Regent Alexander today declared
The remaining 100000 face starvation
II is to save them from the greatest
calamity in history that Prince Alexander.
the Prime Minister Pachtch and the
Foreign Minister Jovanovitch have begun
tour Of Allied capitals. They hope to
get military action in the Balkans that
will insure the restoration of their native
country.
Americans can only form an Idea OF
the conditions in Serbia by imagining the
situation in Belgium. had not America
undertaken to feed the civilian popula-
ton" said the Prince Regent. Even this
picture is inadequate, because Serbia was
not nearly the productive, prosperous
country that Belgium was before the war
BIG TOLL OF MORTALITY.
Terrible as have been the losses in our
army. they have been vastly less than our
civil losses. During the first two Austrian
Invasons of 1914. virtually the entire
civilian population in the devastated dis
trIcts was either massacred or carried off
into captivity in Austria.
"Then came the typhus epidemic, carry
ing off more than 10000. Hardly had this
been overcome when the Germans invaded
last October. Hundreds of thousands more
either fell before the invaders or fled to
other countries, hoping to escape death.
Our population has been diminished by at
least one-flfth, greater percentage than
has been suffered by any other nation in
volved in the war"
Prince Alexander realizes, he said, that
only by keeping intact Serbia's fighting
forces could he hope to redeem his country
from its enemies. For this reason every
thing else was abandoned during the dis
astrous retreat through Albania.
PRINCE STANDS BY FORCES.
The aged King Peter, suffering intense.
ly from the hardships of the retreat
through the mountains. left his armed
forces in command of his son. Prince
Alexander refused to leave the Albanian
coast until the last Serbian soldier had
for reorganization. He has himself just
recovered from the sufferings he shared
with his men In the Albanian retreat.
with the Serbian army which retreat
ed before the combined German, Austrian
and Bulgarian forces vastly superior in
number and equipment to their own, there
retreated thousands upon thousands of
women, children and old men," said Prince
Alexander. Remembering the atrocities
committed by the Austro-H -Hungarlans dur
ing the invasions of August, September
and November, these women and children
and old men fled under the most terrible
conditions imaginable, despite repeated or
ders and recommendations of the Serbian
Government that they remain.
Unfortunately, 1t has since developed
that these poor people were only too right.
We of the Serbian Government were only
too wrong. For information reaching us
from Serbia, Montenegro and Albania
gives the most sombre picture OF the gem
eral situation.
DISEASE AND HUNGER.
Enemy armies, we have learned, have
taken from the Serbian population every