Norwich bulletin., 1918-12-26
DAMAGE IN BELGIUM
 BY THE GERMAN ARMIES

Washinfton, Dec. 25.-PhysicaI dam age wrought in Belgium by the Ger man armies is described in a cable gram received by the food administra- tion from Herbert Hoover who, with William B. Poland, European director of the committee for relief in Belgium, has just completed a survey of con- ditionS ill this liberated country
 On the basis of Mir. Hoovers report, the food administration announced to- day that hereafter 1S0, GOO tons of SUD- plies, including clothing, would be shipped to Belgium each month. As this program will require 160,000 dead weight tons of shipping in addition to ] the 340,000 tons now on charter to the relief commission, application for ad- ditionaI tonnage has been made to the shipping board.
 The cost of the entire relief program will be borne by the Belgian and French governments from loans made by the American government. Frances part of the expense will be for supply ing the people of Northern France as well as several hundred thousand refu- | gees who were forced from that sec 1 tion into Belgium during the retreat i of the German forces.
 i Mir. Hoover's report on his survey l of Belgium said in part:
 Prior to the armistice the German army had completely destroyed a zone
 of railroads and canals some twenty 1 miles Wide-eXtending entirely across ! Belgium. After the armistice, there | was comparatively little destruction
 of transportation to the rear of this zone, and with the rapid rehabilitation 1 of transportation facilities across this 1 zone of destruction the problem of { distribution of food, and of recon struction, can be undertaken with much less difficulty than at present. The Germans in their final retreat
 removed but little of the relief sup plies.
 Their action towards the native harvests and cattle in their with
 drawal differs widely in different areas. They started to take all re- maining hogs from the western part
 of Belgium, except those hidden by the peasants in underground caves. After the armistice, however and with the demoraliZation of the German
 army in it's final retreat, many of these beasts were abandoned or sold by sol
 d:ers to the peasants further back, and in practical results there appears
 to have been no widespread cattle
 stealing in the retreat, although dur
 ing the four years of occupation there has been a great diminution, probably
 over one half, in the total number Of CdlLlR dilQ tiO2S. IL tdll De Sdlu .dllIlOSI
 literally that horses have disappeared
 out of Belgium. there probably not be-
 ing 15 per cent. Of the original animals
 left.
 investigation proves that industrial , and residential destruction in Belgium varies greatly in different localities, and with different industries. For in-
 stance. out of the steel furnaces in
 Belgiunl-35 or 40 have been deliberate +I,,i,- I determination to end the Belgian SteG industry. Many of the textile mills have been put out of commission, either through deliberate destruction , and removal of machinery or by re-
 moval of the copper and brass parts ? and electric motors. l "'The glass industry has been but little interfered with. and the stern
 promise of retribution by President Wilson seems to have saved the coal
 industry except for very few mines, f although actual explosives and wires were laid in place for the destruction
 of a large number of the mines. The ' presidents warning seems to have : created q sudden change of heart s There are some three hundred
 thousand French refugees in Belgium,
 driven out of northern France by the Germans. They have been cared for
 
 gians and by the commission for relief | in Belgium! They are. however. like
 homiDg pigeons in their resolve to return to their native villages As there is no transportation, the roads
 southward into France are a continu . ous stream of these pitiful groups of , men. women and children, pulling their ' carts and trudgtng through the cold q and wind towaFds their destroyed :, hcmes Everything is being done that ! is humanly possible but in the present q state Of demoralzation, with moving ', armies the necessity of using every
 truck and horse with which to feed
 the population, thir plight is heart Q breaking. They refuse all persuasion
 to wait in the crowded Belgian village
 until their affairs can he organized. ! |, The Amricans of the relief com . mission are working night and day r providing shelter stations, clothing T and food for them but l'1-o many o+Her b human migrations in Europe today.
 there is no solution to the suffering ,, that must go on"