Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-08-04
APPLE PAR|NCS USED
FOR TEA IN GERMANY
Starving OF Country Is Most Stu.
pcndous and Terrible Tragedy
Recorded in History.
NO DOGS LEFT IN HUNLAND
Internal Situation Near Breaking
Point-Gcrmans on Their Last
Icgs-Hunger, Typhus and Dyson
terry Spread.
BY w. &. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
international News I3nrcaul

international News Burcau.l
Germany is being starved. AS to
this. there can be no possible doubt
The cumulative evidence Of indie nd
ent witnesses is too unanimous and
too detailed to be ignored
In sense. it Is the most stuprndous
and terrible tragedy recorded i'm his.
tory When, in 1870. 100000 OF Pa
risians were reduced during the siege
to the verge OF famine. the whole world
thrilled with horror at the spectacle.
But here we have 10.000,0o0 Germans
in an even worse plight, not to men
ton some 100000 Austrians
1t is difficult for the average Briton
TO imagine what this means. Here Wa
have undergone deprivation. but we
have not. as a nation. suffered priva-
ton. while famine Is far-off spccter.
hardly considered because never likely
TO materialize.
AIR AND WATER ONLY
ESSENTIALS IN ABUNDANCE
But In Germany there is famine in
every single essential Of life barring
only air and water. Just one instance.
The other day the censor issued an
order to the Berlin newspapers pro-
hibiting the publication of advertise
ments OF dog flesh. Immediately n
ripple OF grim. ironic laughter ran from
one end OF the capital 10 the other.
The people there know that there are
now practically no dogs left in Eer-
lin-cr, for that matter, anywhere else
in Germany-for two different reasons.
There Is no food to give the dogs. and
the people have eaten the dogs for
food.
was not nearly so acute as it is.
Mr.. Gerard made the astounding state
ment that the Germans would not. In
the event OF necessity. hesitate pur-
poscly to starve all persons over a
certain age. People here IN America
shrugged their shoulders incrcdulous
~. They simply could not believe in
the possibility OF such a horror being
perpetratcd.
To-day the thing is being done. Few.
Father Aloysius Daniels well-known
Roman Catholic priest, who left Ger
many SO recently as last February.
says:
Germany now only cares for those
who can aid her in prosecuting the
war. Those who go 10 the police sta
tons. where all permits for food are
issued, and ask permission TO buy milk
Or eggs for sick persons who are un-
able to eat the ordinary rations OF
war bread and potatoes. are inmedi-
ately asked how old is the sick per-
son. II the ailing individual is beyond
the age of active service. food is re-
fused. The man is OF no ne TO Ger
many: we have nothing for him is the
lnvariable reply"
Even salt is now rationed, for. on
top Of all her other food troubles. Ger
many has suffered from 4 salt famine
since the beginning of the present year.
Try to imagine, you who read these
lines, what this means to people whose
basic foodstuns just now are swedes
and potatoes. eked out by an ever
dwindlins minimum OF innutritious and
exceedingly unpalatable war-bread.
Everybody knows the story Of the lit
tie boy who defined salt as the stuff
that spoils potatoes when you don't
boil them with it," Try to realize the
meaning OF a dinner OF potatoes cooked
IN salilcss water. and served. OF course.
minus that or any other condincnt,
Yet this is the meal that is being eaten
in millions Of German and Austrian
homes to-day.
In the years before the war the Ger
mans were gross feeders. Pork was
their favorite meat diet. In 1914 the
pig population Of Germany amounted
&c slightly over twenty-five millions. 4
recent government census showed tina,
there are now left only five million pigs
in all Germany. and these are being
reserved for the army. Such figures
speak for themselves.
Money is still plentiful-that Is to
say. paper money. for all gold. and,
quite recently. all silver as we'll has
been Withdrawn from circulation. It's
place has been taken by notes of small
ranging from two and
one-half dollars in our money. upwards
EVEN RICH PEOPLE UNABLE
TO buy WHAT THEY WANT
This is all very well. hut one can
not est money, and even rich peopl.
md themselves unable to purchase
with 1t the whercwithal TO SATISFY their
hunger. L. l. Pyke, an Errlis
recently released from Ruhlebeh, ha,
placed 1t on record how ne once Maid