New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-05-18
Red Cross Leader Tells
General Methodist Con-
ference of Awful Tras-
cdies i'm Stricken Areas
Appropriation by
Congress g Is Urged
Poland Faces Starvation
and Epidemics Menace
Other Nations, He Says

DIES MONIES, Iowa, Nav 17.-"Onc
of the r"st terrible tragedies in the
history Of the human race is bcinc
enacted in the territory between the
Baltic and the Black and Adriatic
Seas" Henry P. Dawson, of J. p. Nor
gan Co., chairman of the board OF
governors Of the League Of Red Cross
Societies, told the General Conference
of the Methodist Episcopal Church here
to-day.
Mr.. Dawson pleaded that Congress
appropriate not less than $500. 900 900
for the use of the stricken territory
the new Balkan States, Poland, Czecho-
Slovakia, Ukraine, Austria, Hungary
Rumania, Montenegro, Albania and
Serbia.
Mr.. Dawson said Congress should
call upon the President to appoint a
nom n-political commission Of three
Americans, distinguished for their
character and executive ability, which
should proceed at once to survey the
conditions in these countries and to
allocate materials to them without in
terference and by exercise of its own
prerogatlve. He suggested for men,
bers of the commission men Of the tvpe
of General Pershing, Herbert Hoover
and former Secretary Franklin X. Lane.
lie said he had no doubt that the obli-
cation would be repaid and suggested
1T should run for fifteen years.
He also urged that the United States
invite other governments in a position
10 assist and participate in the under
taking and declared: 81 am confident
that our action would be followed by
the governments Of Great Britain, Hol-
land, of the Scandinavian countries,
Spain and Japan and that France and
Belgium and Italy, Notwithstanding
their losses, would help to the best Of
| their ability"
Dawson Tells of Tragedy
Mr.. Davison's speech follows in full:
AS chairman of the convention of
Red Cross Societies. composed of rep
fesentatives OF twenty-seven nations
that met recently in Geneva. | am ems
todian of authoritative reports record
ING appalling conditions among mill
IONS OF people living in Eastern Eu-
rope.
"Whatever our attitude toward the
league OF nations or our apprehensions
regarding foreign entanglements. | feel
It is essential that the people of the
United States realize that one Of the
NEST terrible tragedies in the history
of the human race is being enacted
within the broad belt of territory lying
between the Baltic and the Black and
Adriatic seas.
'This area includes the new Baltic
states - Poland. Czecho Slovakia,
Ukraine, Austria, Hungary, Rumania,
Montenegro, Albania and Serbia
The reports which come to us make
it clear that in these war -ravaged lands
civilization has broken down. Disease,
bereavement and suffering are present
in practically every household, while
food and clothing are insufficient to
make life tolerable.
Men, women and children are dying
by thousands, and over vast once-civi-
lized areas there are to be found
neither medical appliances nor medical
skill sufficient to cope with the de
vastating plaques.
Poland Faces Starvation
According to reports of the Ameri-
can Red Cross and the Commissioner
of the League of Red Cross Societies
made in a signed statement to the
American government, wholesale star
walton is threatened in Poland this
summer unless she can procure food
supplies in large quantities. A tele-
gram to the League of Red Cross sos
cieties, March 20, stated that there are
now approximately $50 900 cases of
typhus in Poland and in the area oc-
cupied by Polish troops.
"This is already one Of the worst
typhus epidemics in the worlds his
tory. In Galicia, whole towns are
/ crippled and business suspended. In
some districts there is but one doctor
to each 10000 people. During the
year 1919 about 2A00,000 refugees and
prisoners entered Poland.
"In the Ukraine, we were told, .typhus
and influenza have affected most of the
population. In villages of two to three
thousand half the people were i'll at
the same time, and there was almost
no medical care. In many cases a ter
ritory forty miles in diameter had but
one physician. Some doctors who had
twenty to thirty thousand patients
could get no medical supplies whatever
and had nothing better to give the sick
than oral instructions. Pauperism is
intensified every day.
Death Reigns in Vienna
"A report from Vienna dated Febru-
airy IL said:
"'There are rations for three weeks.
People are apathetic, fatalstc, tired.
One hundred thousand school children
mad {our