New Britain herald., 1920-01-05

] young naval officer, whom l was | proud to recognize as one of those 1 Americans who did excellent work in ] the early days of the commission for l relief in Belgium. Our own British 1 relief missions, both in Austria and 1 in Hungary, and a number of unonlclal , British workers are doing everything ! possible to stem the tide of distress.
 In Serbia alone, Sir William declared.
 there arc s0O,000 fatherleas children
 most Of whom arc suffering from . hunger and exposure.
 1 It seems to me that you cannot l trlfle with starvation and priNatlon III
 Central Europe such as prevails to- 1 day in Vienna without running the risk of a carnival of Bolshevism which : would proba bly not be confined to this continent. l do not want to cry wolf
 and ] am rather inclined to think ; that Bolshevis1n Has been used too much as bogy, but anyone with half an eye must realize that if, as 8 re- suit of apparently legitimate grieN- ances, forces of unrest arc loosed ill the heart of Europe, tho whole world. the United States as well as ourselves. will be menaccd.''
 Peace Delays Cause of Trouble. Sir William decla red that first and foremost among the causes of the present situation ill Central Europe
 is the delay ill making peace. Tt scarcely seems to be realized 1 in the United Kingdom he continued. isolated from the continent of Flu /: rope by a narrow strip of water and still less in the United States. iso- lated by the Atlantic ocean, that Aus tria, Hungary. Bulgaria and Turkey , arc still technically at war with the Allies and, what is more important ] at war with most of their neiahbors. As one approaches the frontiers one finds every little wayside station
 packed with soldiers. bayonets fixed and railway sidings consested with ammunition wagons. War. and all the wastefui effect of preparediess for war upon economic and industrial progress, are Nisualized for miles as one travels through these countries. Europe All Mixed Up.
 Tn many corners of Central Flu rope today the inhabitants do not
 even know their own nationality. Cn- til universal peace is ratified until Doundar. com m issions are able to get to work. and until plebiScites can determine the future ot demoeraeies,
 Central Europe will be a patchwork oT ethnological dislocation. An over prolonged armiStice, following upon ] four years of War. has knocked away almost every fundamental prop; DO litical, financial and economic.
 ''States on the Danube-the main l avenue of tratfic-fear to send barges out of their own territorial waters lest they should be appropriated by their next-door neighbor. Just as on land the British Tommy IS the only safeguard for 8 train of supplies, so on the Danube one of Admiral Trou- bridges British mine-layers, with little British p1iddy in command, IS the only guarantee of safe conduct. "'rhe other day. on the Juso-Slar frontier. trains of food supplies ar ranged by the Allied Relief Missions l and all paid for by the Austrian gov ernment were On their way to m1tl- ! gate starvation ill Vienna. At the last moment the Jugo- -Slay government clapped on an export duty of 40 per ! cent. and refused to permit the trains 1 to go forward unless that tax was paid l in foreign exchange. I ventured to i take international law into my own l hands and. thanks to the TeSourcetul- l ness and intrepidity of a couple or 1 young British Army officers, those : trains arrived in Vienna.
 Traffic Handicapped.
 l Another interlocking difficulty as i between food and transport IS the ! persistent flocking of peasants with l egss. sa ck5 of flour, live geese and l d1,cbs and all kinds of agricultural 1 produce into the towns. In snow, 1 rain. or any kind of weather, you can
 see not only the inside but the roof or : every railway carriage thronged with 1 this attacking crowd of food specula- ] tors Their traffic has assumed such l proportions as to make legitimate 1 railway travelling almost impossible | What it means in the problem of food i distribution will be apparent when l l tell you that d train of 40 carriages l full of these proflteering peddlers can ! only carry as much tood as couiu pc 1 put into four ordinary rallwaS i trucks