Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-09-21

r,,,,coe from the department of the
Nj ,vbo formed part Of the recent con-
-. os ,nhabitsnts of his district whom
a., German military authorities per
:...I 90 retun to France by the route
'ln, n.a,nar;lv ador1ed, viz, by Belgium, Ger
and Switzerland, has informed lis
- ,hc very brItal and inhumane manner
IN which ths enemy carries out these
''evacuatIons
The CONVOY in which the refugee In
,ucst;on hat 20 take his place was mus
tered in a snail town of the Nord. II was
at the tim, of the severe cold weather
which Iasts. from the middle of last De
cember to he middle of January. The
convoy ws composed for the most part
of old mer, women and children. On the
dav fixed or the departure these wretched
beings wire herdcd from morning tall
in the fternoon In q goods freight
station pen To every wind. lhe tenn
perat,,r, had descended TO several degrees
below zru. IL was showing.
sARcH FOR MONEY AND PAPERS.
Slouy. minutely the Germans pro
cecde, TO search the refugees luggage
and r,ckets. II was forbidden to carry
none. specie, or papers of any sort
cxenwhite paper to write on, or pencils.
ES,aty. as dusk was falling the miserable
,,roass,on. shIvcring with cold, was con-
'lueed on foot to- the departure station
tu, kilometres distant from tho building
whrc thcy had been examined. Each
hal to carry rs best he could. IN his hand
a ON his back, the 80 or 40 pounds OF
Ivvape he had with him. The women
,ho had many children miners wives
,r he most part had Of course tscharge
themselves with n heavier load still. under
which they tottcred. Several tell ex-
haustcd by the way.
II took them. under these conditions,
an hour and a half TO walk these two
kilometres Finally the wretched flock
was piled into cattle wagons, without
straw. without benches TO sit on. They
were forbidden TO have any light t-even to
stikc match. They were stiIi under
liz fire of the French lines)
The train started For u hours It
rlled on it's wav In bitter cold. No food
he moor wretchcs had indeed brought
,rovisions with them, but they were
,arked so CLOSELY that they could not get
AZ their packages to open them. The
sngine stopped far from stations at un-
tuNwn places They could not bulge TO
open their packages or to warm them
seIve, for fear of trcading on the children
I,ingnn the floor There were from 30 tn
40 lyng in each wagon Many of these
bshr.feIl i'll with the cold had diarrhua
or vtritlnR II was impossible to satisfy
tho neds of nature The frost had stuck
The siding doors, so that they refused to
omen The refugees spent night and
,lay abominablc filth. CrIes of horror
,an1e from ono Of the wagons. There
wcrrold men and women there who were
ag6ulng. dying Of cold
CoID AND PNEUMoN,
Tev arrived at Narenne. near LAego
Thctravcllers were crowded into carts
vokd 10 miserable horses, and the next
stag. In arctic cold was intolerably long
Ma. old men. many women, above all,
ma. children were attacked by bronCho-
nnemonia. They died.
A Nerrnne, a committee OF Belgian
lads had distributed to each n bowl of
rotic, or rather OF = substitute (crsat7
for>offee. That was all the food these
nos things received during al hours. tor
wis this method of transport in carts,
II ook them two days and two nights to
resh the vicinity of LIcge.
The Belgians did all they could 10 mIti-
gsc their misery. But they themselves
wre in sore need. They had for food po-
ttoes and soup \ litre of petrol cost
: francs. Each Of the inhabitants was
ntitled to 200 pounds of bad coal a
aonth-coal which refused to burn
The departure from Belgium was as
iamentable as their previous experiences
From morning. a thousand human beings
of whom not one hundred were men, were
shut up in an icy-cold goods station till $
IN the evening. The Germans had put
up notices announcing that there was no
need to take vlctuals, since the convoy
would be fed by the German Red Gross
The greater part OF the travellers
especially tho women OF the working