Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-01-09
FEEDING Of POLES
IS GIGANTIC TASK
German Took Over Big Job
When They Conquered
Russian Province.
NEW RULERS WELCOMED
BY BULK OF THE PEOPLE
Men Inclined to Be Suspicious and
Must Be Forced Into
Work.
Correspondence of the Associated Press.

arrival in Warsaw the Germans found
that they not only had to support their
own huge armies, but had also to pro-
vide food and shelter for an enormous
number of Poles who had been driven
away from their homes, and then later
had been sent back to villages burned
to the ground. villages in which there
remained no single house standing, not
one head of cattle and not one bushel
of grain.
That the extent of the damage might
be correctly estimated. a special de-
partment to investigate the destruction
was formed at once. and officers began
tours of the country districts to see
how great the needs of the returning
inhabitants might be. They reported
that the Russians not only had burned
up all existing food supplies, but empty
barns that were to house the unhar-
vested crop. Cattle packed into freight
trains had been destroyed by sending
| the trains over destroyed bridges into
the rivers. In individual cases spe-
! ciaI tracks had been laid, down which
the cars We're rolled to the waters
edge.
Bands of Russian soldiers, the in
y~estigatorS claim. went Systematically
through each village that was to be
abandoned. squirted petroleum over
each house. and then set the town IN
flames. Between 5000 and 1900 viii
lagos were destroyed in this way, their
inhabitants being forced, under pen
atty of death, to flee to the east.
Charges of Bribery Made.
Bribery played a not unimportant
| part in the retreat, it is claimed AS
consp cuous examples, there stand, here
and there throughout Poland, lone
houses that have not suffered at all.
The inhabitant maintain that their i'm
| munity was purchased with rubles, or
! that they were left unmolested because
they were Russian rather than Polish.
The Germans up to date have been
able to investigate only a part of the
territory evacuated by the Russians.
They fear that the estimates of many
hundreds of thousands of fugitiVes who
now are homeless will mount into the
millions eventually. The Investigations
show that not only the houses along
the regular lines of retreat were de-
stroyed, but also that villages far re-
moved from the main east-west roads
We're ravaged also The only eXcep-
lions are the comparatlveiy infrequent
colonies of Russians, as differentiated
from Poles.
In thousands the inhabitants were
driven eastward. but when the German
pursuit became 90 hot the civilians
including old men and
ruthlessly turned to one side of the
road and then ordered to go back in
the hope that they would obstruct Ger
mans.
BY tens Of thousands the men and
| women who had been torn from their
homes died as they returned. Their
graves line miles of the roads in Po-
land. One German officer counted 927
| civilian graves that bordered a single
~thoroughfare within a space of twenty
kilOmeters.
Eventually the refugees returned to
49, I-~-e 1o-a r-~ - " h fhn CAV
mans and tine Russians had conducted
trench warfare. In the lack of houses,
the Poles sought the trenches and
bomb-proof shelters as homes, and to-
day are living in them to a great ex-
tent. Supplied with the necessities of
life by the Germans, they are cooking
their meals in the bottoms of chimneys
that still stand, and slowly are build
ing themselves new homes
Lumber From Royal Forests.
In anticipation of winter, the Germans
| began cutting lumber from the Russian
royal forests and delivering it to the
homeless Poles. The Polish Architec-
tural Society formulated plans for
houses-especially designed to house
Polish peasant families, and with a
wing in which cattle could find shelter
land has supplied each homeless fam
lily with them. Several hundred have
overcome their suspicion of the Ger
mans, partly because the house plans
are promulgated by Poles. and have
erected one-story homes of wood which
are vastly more practical than their
old matched cottages.
The destruction of the retreating Rus
SLAMS was not confined 10 the country
villages. but included also every indus
trial plant in the Observation-Disclosures
of whether 1t might be turned to mill
tary uses or not. Thus. for example,
-f - - - 49, ,I.-I 4.
was valued at 5000. 900 marks, ana
which employed some 5000 Poles. The
ownership of the factory was in Pol
ish and German hands, and, in addition
to the hands in the main factory, about
5000 Poles were employed in the
branches, which went out of business
with the destruction of.the parent con
Germ.
Reconstruction of Roads.
Something over a million and a half
dollars has been expended by the Ger
mans since their occupancy of Poland
in reconstructing the unspeakably bad
roads that criss-cross the kingdom at
more or less rare intervals, and which
have been all but destroyed by artillery
fire and by the transportation OF big
guns, ammunition and food supplies.
For those in charge of the recon
srruction of connections the
| armies ana nome the TASK mas grown
with each kiloneter that the Germans
have won from the Russians. Prior to
the fall of Warsaw there were approx
imately l,04S k!lometers 900 miles) of
roads TO be repaired, but when the
Russians retreated to Brest Litovsk
and then abandoned that fortress, the
mileage increased to $40 kilometers
G., 400 miles, and the difficulties in
volved grew greater with each addI-
tional mile.
The Germans found, on their arrival.
a few so-called Imperial roads" which
were, for the most part, strips of sand.
From the inhabitants-or such OF them
as remained-they learned that taxes
for the upkeep of the ~thoroughfares
had been collected over and Overland
never spent for the purpose intended.
A second class of roads. the so-called
government streets. were all but I'M
passable, and the third variety consist
ed Of roads that not only were impassa-
BILE, but impossible. All three sorts were
torn by shells. cut by trenches and
rutted by both Russian and German
wagons bound for the front.
III Germans In charge of road re-
building claim that they never have
lhad any word as to the ultimate inten-
'tion of their government with respect
TO Poland-that their work has gone on
irrespective Of any intention to annex
1.-THE ancient Kingdom, that the work has
been done purely as a sort OF philan-
rhropic measure, and that II will stand
as "A heritage for those who may in the
future govern Poland.
VYyzrl~ r. na-x TLoro,-l1-