Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1920-01-19
PITIABLE STORY
Of DEPRIVATIONS
IN BAL TIC STATES
Children Sweep Flour Dust
From WharVes and Eat 1t
Along With Dirt, Says AM
erican Lieutenant.


SPECIAL coRRHsroSoEHes TO MORNING IouSSALl
New York. Jan. IS.--Little child
rem so hungry that they swept flour
dust off the wharves and streets and
ate it along with the dirt and debris
it contained
Soap so scarce than an English ma
val officer in Libau traded two cases
for a luXuriously mahogany finished
| private yacht
/ These are two vivid pictures of con-
ditions in Poland, Lithuania and Bal
tic Russia, as seen by Lieut. Lucien F..
! Messenger, who had charge until re-
Gently of children's relief work in
Lithuania for the American relief ad-
ministration after seeing active serv-
ice in France.
81 had a family of 10000 children
and they used to call me Daddy Mes
| singer the lieutenant wrote in
| letter to colonel Harry Cutler, Provi-
dence, his old commanding officer
and member of the executive commit
/ tee of the American Jewish relief COM
mittee, which has raised almost sl2,-
! 000 900 in the United States this year
Children Starving.
"I saw a number of children unable
| to walk or even crawl because of mall
nutrition, when we arrived. Ten days
after receiving our American cocoa,
milk, rice, etc, these very same child
rem walked in a body to our door, with
smiles on our faces. to thank us for
the happiness we had brought them.
con several occasions the president
and other officials of the Lithuanian
government took great pains to tell me
that not only has American relief in
creased the morale of the adult popu-
laton inestimably, but that children
are now seen with smiles on their
faces, where there had been nothing
but expressions of misery and pain for
the previous five years.
1t was necessary to maintain armed
military guards around the wharves
and railroad stations when American
Nour was loaded and unloaded to keep
the crazedl people away from the
white flour which they hadn't seen
for five years, according to Lieutenant
Messenger.
How They Get Food.
"A certain amount of dust settled
on the wharves and ground when the
flour was unloaded," he continued.
"Children would rush up with small
brushes made ont OF twigs, carefully
sweep this flour into their hands and
eat Ii with the dirt and debris II con-
tanned. The men, unloading, would
purposely cut the sacks and eat raw
flour.
"As each barge was unloaded you
would see these same men down on
their knees, scraping up with their
hands the small amount of flour left
on the floors and putting it into their
greasy caps to carry home and make
bread"
The greatest need of these people is
soap and cloth that they can make
into clothing, in Lieutenant Messing
ers opinion. Laundry soap costs 10
marks for a half pound bar. he en-
phaszed in relating how an English
naval officer in Libau was the most
sought-af man in the town when it
was discovered that he had two cases
of famous brand of American soap.
which he finally traded for a private
yacht,
'"rhe American relief administra-
ton with funds partly supplied by
the joint distribution committee. dis
bursing organization for American
Jewish relief agencies, seemed to meet
the needs OF the thousands of starv-
ing children by the distribution Of one
daily meal consisting of cocoa, sugar.
white and hard bread and sometimes
SOUP" added the lieutenant.
Methods of Distribution.
'"The method of distribution was
quite out of the ordinary but very eff
ficient. A truck with a nurse and
chauffeur would start out. loaded with
supplies, and on passing through each
township or commune. would notify
the authorities that the truck would
return at q certain time and that the
children should be gathered there to
receive their food Though the roads
were very bad this was the only
scheme by which it was possible to
reach the areas recently evacuated by
the bolsheviks."
In Warsaw, according to Lieutenant
Messenger anything could be bought
if people had the money, but that few
people had any. There were large
numbers of beggars there and the
people were all very badly and poorly
clothed he wrote, with shoes and
soap the greatest needs.
Lieutenant Messenger told how he
won the lasting gratitude of the hun
cry Lithuanian Jews by exchanging
the minister of supplies,
supply of lard which they would not
use, for fresh butter and a vegetable
oil their first fats in several years
Lithuania has suffered more than
any other part of Russia. through the
of the Germans and the
holsheviks, according to Lieutenant
Messenger. The Germans COM
mandeered everything they could lay
their hands on, taking. it is estimated,
$50 900 horses and an unknown num-
ber of cattle. sheep and swine. I have
seen Germans ship out of their
slaughter houses carloads of hides OF
heifers which they had taken from
The poor peasants, using the meat for
heir army and sending the hides to
Germany for shoes.
with the country nearly stripped
IF its cattle, horses and farm prod
icts you cannot imagine the delight
md the good cheer that American re-
ief brought to these people," he con-
.Iudnd