The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-21
STRAINS STARVING
 BY THOUSANDS IN
 LEBANON REGION

Returned From Beirut
 Tells of Terrible Con- ditiOns There
 New York, october IA thousand deaths a day from starvation out of q population of 350,0o0 in the Lebanon noun tains near Beirut, Syria, is the toll of famine conditions there resulting from the war, it was declared here today by the Rev. William H. Hall of the Syrian
 Protestant college, who recently returned
 to this country from relief work in that
 district.
 Continuing, MT. Hall described the
 tragic disappointment of the people there, whose spirits were kept up for weeks by the promised arrival last Christmas time
 of the American relief ship Caesar, which
 would have meant life to thousands but which never arrived, owing to the refusal
 of Germany and Austria-Hungary to
 grant her safe passage to Beirut. The Caesar, naval collier loaned to
 the Red Cross by the navy department,
 left New York months before the entry
 of this country into the war, as d
 "Christmas ship" for the needy in Syria,
 carrying more than quarter of a mill
 lion dollars worth of food and clothing
 contributed in this country.
 Day after day, the poor, starving peo-
 pie along the coast and through the
 mountains looked and prayed for the
 coming of the American ship" MT. Hail
 said ''The country was canvassed by
 we'll organized committees, the needy
 were listed, the work of distribution was
 thoroughly prepared, offices were opened
 and men chosen to direct the distribution.
 The people waited. Their hopes were
 raised high.
 Week followed week and month fol-
 lowed month. In suspense the people
 daily looked out to sea for her, but the
 ship which meant life and hope to thou
 sands never appeared. She was held by
 military necessity, while the people starved.
 God has forgotten usl' was heard
 again and again as hopeless and hungry
 they stood face to face with death by
 starvation.
 If the Caesar had arrived it would have meant that other ships would fol- low, but her failure to come dashed all hope for relief Her cargo was sold and the 1unQS IlHdlly lOuIu lUelT way lo Beirut for the purchase and distribution of food there, but there was little food to be bought.
 I've know for fact that thousands of our friends there will die this winter, despite the great good that can be ac- complished by sending funds from Amer ica to buy what food can be obtained on the ground for distribution in an effort to save as many as possible off, of ic a ffliCfo as the mountain districts, Mir Hall went on, and day or night one hears the cry along the streets, T am hungry, give me bread" This is not from beggars, but from laborers and tradesmen, people who have known the comforts of life. "In Jerusalem" he continued, ''one cannot pass along a street without being
 beset for prayers for aid There are mothers with babes pulling at their bar ren breasts and children whose parents have succumbed and left them to face starvation alone.s-as4-
 Syria and Palestine have no story of massacre or deportation, but these dis | tricts, once prosperous and self-support- l ing, are now caught in the world strife, and the people are slowly but surely l starving to death through no fault of their own. Figures appall one. Compe- | tent authorities assert that not less than | 100000 persons are today in dire dis | tress in these historic Bible lands. l "Of this numbef at least 75,000 are chill | dren below the age of 12-boys and girls 1 and little children with no older person l to provide the food without which they 1 will perish, or to soothe the last hours | forces of nature and the hour has come 1 for them to face the great eternal with l out father or mother near"
 1 A plague of locusts; the denuding of l the fields of men for the armies; the 1 blockade of the coast the lack of tour 1 ists and the breakdown of transportation l are given by MT Hall as the reasons for
 the failure of food and prosperity in
 these lands, which boasted they never could suffer famine" so rich was thei- | productivity. But particularly were con- ditions due to speculation in food sup 1 plies by Turkish officials and theil l friends he said.
 l Some men in high positions, holding l the food of the country in their hands, have gambled with death and won,' Mr. Hall sadi. ''The people have died l while they stored away one knows not what fortunes in gold.
 l The Ottoman government, he said, has 1 done something in relief measures in l opening hospices for children and dis l tributing food, but such help has reached l only few thousands, while the work of ! the AmerlCdn fteQ CTOSS dl DSlTut was I stopped by the breaking off of diplo-
 matic relations between this country and | Turkey.
 | "But relief money can yet be sent to ! buy and distribute food, as there are still i enough American missionaries remaining 1 in the country to attend to it.' he added. 1 "Tne whole people cannot be saved, but | a good number can be, and even rem I nant is Iorth saving. Theirs is a land l which historically has claim upon the I charity of the world but it's chief claim l now is not historical. it is human. We I are in war to liberate humanity. It is ] on this ground that Syria appeals to the
 world.
 i .The funds collected in this country by I the American committee for Armenian and Syriane relief are being disburseG l through these American missionaries anG 1 teachers of the American college in l Beirut Even though hundreds die fol lack of food, because money cannot buy 1 enough there to go round, great good car l be done if funds are forthcoming from this country generously enough.
 "At least one-fourth of the population l of the Lebanon mountains has alread. 1 perished from hunger and diseases al I rectly caused thereby The story whicl ! must be written when this present winte I is over will be even more terrible to read N unless immediate help is provided" T MT Hall graduated from Union colleg in 1896 and Mccormick Theological sem I mary in 1902, in which year he was or