Evening star., 1939-11-23
20,00O,0O0 Poles
Face Starvation,
Government Reveals
Resources Surviving
Destruction Token
Over by Germans
By EDGAR ANsEL MOWRER.

BY EDGAR ANSEL MOWRER.
PARIS, Nov. %. - starvation
stares 100000 Poles in the face"
This is not propaganda. 1t is a
sober statement of fact from writ
ten description of the situation in
German-occupied Poland, collected
and issued in Paris yesterday by the
Polish government.
None who remember the situa-
ton in Belgium in the autumn of
1914, a few months after it had
been occupied by the German Army,
will feel the slightest astonishment.
For the fundamental reason is the
same in both caSeS-namely, appro-
priation by the conquerors of all
resources for themselves with total
Indifference to the plight of the ma
tiveS whom the Germans, in this
case, call contemptuously, Slavic
subhumans'
Worse Off Than Belgium.
AS matter of fact, the fate of
Poland is far worse than that of
Belgium in 1914 simply because the
devastation of war in Poland is far
more widespread and destruction is
infinitely greater. Germany's army
in 1914 possessed no aviation ca
pable of spreading destruction upon
virtually helpless enemy and there
cincn af Drr,ccn1c ci,,,i1ot. fN
the siege of Warsaw. According to
the Polish statement, the chief rea-
sons for the approaching famine are
as follows:
First, certain of the best Polish
agricultural lands, namely, in Poz-
nan and Pomorze, have been liter
ally absorbed into the Reich and 95
per cent of the Polish population
has been eXiled into the rest of oc-
cupied Poland, where conditions are
less favorable. Entire villages in the
two provinces have been stripped by
the conquerors like locusts.
On the other hand, the rich prov
tnce of Wolyn is now absorbed by
the Russians, helping to compensate
for the Russian inadequacy. Areas
near the rivers Bug and San have
been devastated by the war oper-
ations. Fires purposely lighted by
the Germans have turned large dis
tricts into temporary deserts, while
in some districts heroic Polish farm
ers have themselves destroyed their
crops to prevent their falling into
the hands of the invaders.
Reserve Grain Burned.
Reserves amounting to 10000
tons of grain equal to Poland's
peacetime bread consumption for
one month was burned in the ele-
vators. Potatoes, which are staple
diet, were not properly grown.
Weather conditions were bad and
partly ripe potatoes were dug up by
both armies. Poland's potato supply
is negligible
The Germans, throughout the
country, have ruthlessly comman-
deered for themselves cattle and
pigs. The breakdown of transpor-
tation prevents the distribution of
what is still available.
Yesterdays document states:
The German government is pur-
posely aiming at the starvation of
the occupied territories. The dis
tribution of free soup is a mere
propaganda scheme"
Warsaw was stripped of food and
left to get along as best it could and
the result has been hunger and a
TRIPPING of food prices within the
city, while incomes have dwindled.
Large portions of the population
which lived on productive ac-
tlvity will soon have exhausted their
Slender resources.
Infant Mortality Scars.
Moreover, German aviation and
artillery destroyed numerous in
dustries, leaving thousands unem-
ployed and without any means.
Commerce between the cities and
the country will soon degenerate
into barter. Infantile mortality is
rising by leaps and the sanitary
breakdown is producing from 30 to
80 new cases of typhoid daily in
warsaw alone.
The document concludes that
unless the civilized world is willing
and able to give organized, we'll
planned and immediate help, this
winter and spring will see simply
atroclous conditions in Poland.
Poland needs today foods like con-
densed milk, canned goods, fats and
grains. while smaterials for soup,
nledicaments like aspirin, disinfect-
ants, warm clothing are also lack
ing. 1t suggests that the transport
OF such articles to Poland can only
be effectively undertaken ,1nder in