The evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1914-1922, 1916-01-13
UNCLAIMED NOOK
IN DELC|UM IS
FOUND BY A. c. R.
Commission for Relief of the
Stricken Kingdom Locates
Veritable No Mans Land.
Independent Since 1915.

tAssuciated Press Cortcspondence.)
London. Dec. 2S.--ln an effort to
penetrate To every portion OF Belgium
In their relict work the %delcgates OF
the American commission for the re-
lief OF Belgium nave discovered In the
rcmotest corner 81 that country "a 40
mans land which STAGE 1slj has cn-l
joyed absolute Independence under q
guarantee OF perpetual neutrality.
which even ~ The present struggle has
never Dccn violated. This little coun-
try OF one square mile In size IN called
Mutcsnct Neutrc and has Holland 20
the north. belgium Ia the west aId
Germany everywhere else. Hut Morcs-
net Ncutrc Is neither Belgian, German
nor Dutch. II used To he a part of
Belgium and was uutil 1915 like the
rest OF that country n province Of
France. BS the treaty or Vienna. Rel
GUM and Holland became Independent
countries. bif Mor.snct, which ~ hat
time held the greatest zinc MINI uf
Europe became a zone of contention
between Prussia and the Netherlands
Finally neither got a and the difficulty
was solved by making IL neutral ter
ritory.
The mine OF zinc has long since been
exhausted In Morcsnct. but. digging
into deeper strata the vein was con
tinuc1 into Belgium and German ter
ritofy. Consequently the country has
lost its chief reason for retaining its
Independence. but by Keeping tn
min. smcl,er in It's territory Il has
continued 10 receive the same consid-
Grafton from It's powerful n%eighbors as
In the past.
The whole country u owned by the
Nieille Montague company, which.
with the exhaustion 90 the zinc dcpos-
is, sought other helds until II has be-
come 50 intcrnationnli2ed that II ~ a.
neutral In It's impartial activities as
the country where u got ~ start. The
president Of the company II Baron
RothsChild Of Frankfort. who sells
products from the company mines in
Germany to nat country. They also
have mines in France, ana their gem
eral manager. a loyal Frcnchman. H.
selling inc to the French goyer1-
mcnt Their MANAGER In Great Brit
ain where they hay. a zine mine IN
Scotland is "A Belgian a1d ne ~ selling
the product to the British government.
The company has mines iu Africa dHd
other reInoto places, and under It's IN
ternational management Is prospering
The country ~ governed by Two bur
gomasters, u named by the Gcrna
the other 6y the belgian gov crnments.
There are 1000 Germans, 1000 l.e!-
gians and 400 Neutres IN tho country
TO become a Neutrc II must be proven
that oncs family has resided In Mores-
net 100 years. Tho Bolgians arc M
der their own burgomast,r the GER
.., ...4T.p tn.t,. tslyf. sI. N.uftlu
have the privilege Of chooging bctwcol
the two. In criminal coses tho bur
gomastcr can choose either German
or Belgian Judges. Hut whatever
Judge is selected must ~" the code
Napoleon and make his decision iu &c
cordance with It's principles
The taxes are also equally divided
between Germany and belgium as arc
the two post offices.
When the little country began to
suffer for IA lack OF food the problem
of relief became acute. The country
was not German. therefore IA" Ger
mans refused 10 feed the Belgians
while the latter refused To admit food
for the feeding Of the Germans. An
effort was made To separate the two.
but they wcr. found So mixed, living
in the same house. members Of tho
same family and many speaking tho
Ar tongue. that my separation Was
Impossible. 1t VAS found that all or
none must he fed. And moreover in
the original dispute the Ncutrrs seem
to have been forgotten. Finally "A
rouGh compromise was made whereby
the mission supplied the people
OF The whole country with bread while
Germany furnished them with meat.
potatoes and butter.
In Attempting To- iced the Morcsnct
people the commission faces some
problems out of all proportion To the
size of the country. Under IL agrce-
mcnts with the various bclligofcnts II
must II possible only import tood from
neutral Couatrios. but the frontier OF
MoTcsnet with Holland is the apex Of
a triangle without roads ana for OBJ
vious reasons Germany doe not de-
sire any communication Ia be esta0-
lished from that direction.
Somt ldea of he difficulty of getting
into M%oresast may ice gained from TIE
following description OF the trip
which two Of The delegates of the CONF
mission m de Ia the country.
order tu reach Moresnet We
i%ourneyed by automobile from Liege
Tor ABOUT Two nnNis 10 some 'i NV
mort beautiful districts IN the Arden
mes. mounting gradually higher until
AT last on the opposite sid of a little
stream. The BLACK II white striped
bars across the bridge announced That
we had reached the border The
stripe Also toid us that this was f:us-
Ian territory. We stopped ana show
,t our passports. The Engli,h-spoak-
ing GoIuan officer objected that thcy
Ncre not Nis.d for prussihu territory.
on telling him thht We were on a tour
of inspection and did not desire To en-
ter Prussiau t"rritotA, he explained
that 10 reach Murcsuct Ncutrc We
would have Ia cross about twelve fo"t
of Prussian soil. We hnulll found mat
by climbing "a fence We could reach
the countr, without invading Prussia
The oGicer. however objected. aud at
last We discovered that halls of The
roal was neutral Will" The other halt
was prussiau. We offered To Keep the
automobile on the wrong side of he
rond aud thus 'Nddc prussiau terri"
tory Ate. u long walt occupied win
much tricphoning we were permitted
10 cross the twelve feet ot prus7.an