New-York tribune., 1919-01-26
The False Boche Face
Letters from A'm'y Officers mow in Germany

To. the Editor of The Tribune
CIR: 1 have recently received letters from
~ two different officers with the Army of
Occupation in Germany containing informa-
tion regarding food conditions and propa-
ganda which | feel our people ought to
know.
One of these officers writes from Badern,
Germany, under date of December 8, as fol-
lows:
"We started on November q and got
here last night. 1t has been a long, hard
hike. The first three days we went right
through the old fighting zone and didn't
see d living soul nothing but roofess
houses and acres and acres of barbed wire.
Our accommodations were what you might
expect At Warcq we unrolled our rolls
on the floor of rooless house and used
the fallen tmbers for fuel in the open
fireplace. At Coutry by trading some white
bread and an undershrt l managed to get
four eggs rabbit and chicken We had
some feed that night.
Here in Germany the people are mostly
cold and sullen, but they are still terribly
afraid Of us and they behave very we'll.
All this talk about the food shortage in
Germany is bunk. They have darn sight
more food than the French, believe me-
They holler lot about being short, but
when requisition things they always
make raise of it. Each family has
stock of grub salted away. Chickens are
n % VHh i1a hickoD
in France. The old we'll known pouillet in
France costs twenty francs a portion now.
| am afraid the American peace delegates
Will be too soft Every man at the peace
conference ought to be compelled to tour
France and Belgium before voting. Then
he would svote right. l had woman tell
me of having a three months old
baby spiked on a bayonet, and every one at
Clemency knew that two kilometres from
there 1,200 men, women and children were
slaughtered early in the war"
Eight days later the same officer writing
from Dusseldorf, Germany, says
"All the army provides is beef, spuds
and bread. 1t is hard to get much variety
out of just three things. However, we
have our mess established in a house across
the street, and the woman who cooks for
us furnishes the variety-Brussels sprouts,
peas, plums, jam, etc. That reminds me!
The Germans are going to win this war yet
unless the British and the French stop
them. | read in the paper that Hoover has
said that while we would not give the Ger
mans anything like the amount of food
that they say they need, nevertheless he
estimated that they have to have so many
million tons of grain, etc That's all poppy
cock. Every house in this town and in
Badern and Oberkail where l have been
stationed, has grain stored in the attic
They thrash a little every day. When we
want to put the horses in their stables ON
their smooth thrashing floor they holler and
say Where will we thrash our grain' We
tell them that they will have to double
up--three or four families use the same
thrashing floor. Not only has the little old
woman who cooks for us jam and preserves
to last for several years, but every blankety-
blank house in town has the same amount
To-day | saw hundreds of people thronged
around place, each with n little wagon, to
draw coal Think of it, real coal! Here
the peasants are being provided with it.