New Britain herald., 1916-01-11
ND MAYS LAND IN
 BELGIUM SINCE 1915
horesnet Neutre Has Enjoyed
 Absolute Independence
Correspondence of Asso. Press

= penetrate lo every portion Ot Belgium
 in their relief work the delegates oi
 the American commission for the Re
 lief of Belgium have discovered in
 the remotest corner of that country a
 no mans land which since 1915 has
 enjoyed absolute independence under
 a guarantee of perpetual neutrality,
 which even in the present struggle has
 never been violated This little coun-
 try of one square mile in size IS called
 Moresnet Neutrc and has Holland to
 the north, Belgium to the west and
 Germany everywhere else. But Mores-
 net Neutra is neither Belgium, Ger
 man nor Dutch It used to be a part
 of Belgium and was until 1915 like
 the rest of that country a province
 of France. By the treaty of Vienna,
 Belgium and Holland became inda-
 pendent countries, but MOreSnet,
 which at that time held the greatest zinc mine of Europe became a bone of contention between Prussia and the Netherlands. Finally neither got it and the difficulty was solved by mak- ing it neutral territory.
 The mine of zinc has long since been exhausted in Moresnet, but digging into deeper strata the vein was con- tinued into Belgium and German ter ritory. Consequently the country has lost it's chief reason for retaining its independence, but by keeping the mine shelter in it's territory it has continued to receive the same con- sideration from it's powerful neigh bors as in the past.
 Owned by Company.
 The whole country is owned by the Vielle Montague company, which with the exhaustion of the zinc de- posits, sought other fields until it has become so internationalized that It is as neutral in it's impartial activities as the country where it got it's start The president of the company IS Baron Rothchild of Frankfurt, who l sells products from the company s l mines in Germany to that country. | They also have mines in France, and | their general manager, loyal 1 is selling zinc to the French government. Their manager in Great Britain where they have l zinc mine in Scotland is a Belgian and he is selling the product to the British government. The company has mines in Africa and other remote | is prcspering.
 The country is governed by two one named by the Ger man and the other by the Belgian governments There are 2,000 Ger mans, 2,O00 Belgians and 400 Neutres in the country To become a Neutre it must be proven that ones family re- sided in Moresnet 160 years. The Belgiaas are under their own Burgo-. master. the Germans under theirs while the Neutres have the privilege of choosing between the two. In cases the burgomaster can choose either German or Belgian judges. But whatever judge is se- lected must use the Code Napoleon and make his decision in accordance with it's principles.
 Taxes Equally Divided.
 The taxes are also equally divided between Germany and Belgium as are the two post offices
 When the little country began to suffer for lack of food the problem of relief became acute. The coun- try was not German, therefore the Germans refused to 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 were found so mixed, living in the same house, members of the ] same family and many speaking the l same tongue, that any separation was impossible. It was found that the | Neutres seem to have been forgotten. Finally rough compromise was made whereby the Commission supplied the NF n bread while Germany furnished them with meat, potatoes and butter
 Commission Faces Problems.
 In attempting to feed the Moresnet people the commission faces some problems out of all proportion to the size of the country. Under it's agree ments with the various belligerents it must if possible only import food from neutral countries, but the frontier of Moresnet with Holland is the apex of a triangle without roads and for ob- vious reasons Germany does not de- sire any communication to be estab- ,1tshed from that direction. ~Some idea of the difficulty of get ting into Moresnet may be gained from the following description of the grip which two of the delegates of the Commission made to the country.
 Journeyed by Automobile.
 ''In order to reach Moresnet we journeyed by automobile from Iiege for about two hours to some of the 1 m ost beautiful districts in the Ar dennes, mounting gradually higher | until at last on the opposite side of a | little stream, the black and white | striped bars across the bridge an nounced that we had reached the bCr- 1 der The stripe also told us that l this was Prussian territory We stop i 0ed and showed our passports. The 1 English-speaking German officer ob- jected that they were not Vised fer 1 Prussian territory. On telling him