Thanks to the efficient work of the Commission, fully seventy-five per cent. of the Belgians receiving food were able to pay for it. This was due to the clever financiering of Mr. Hoover and his committee, who managed, by an ingenious method, to raise the depreciated paper currency to par value.
Putting gift and purchase cargoes together there were delivered in a single month, “twenty-five thousand tons of wheat, thirty thousand tons of flour, eleven thousand tons of maize, fifteen hundred tons of rice, five hundred and forty-six tons of peas, four thousand tons of beans, one hundred and seven tons of potatoes, one hundred and twelve tons of salt, with thirty-six hundred tons of sundries.”
In the spring Antwerp and Brussels were feeding about two hundred and eighty thousand people twice a day. At least four million people are getting their food through the National Commission. Those who can pay for it do so. Food is given in the bread line to those who cannot pay. At first only workmen appeared in the line, then small shopkeepers, and later professional men.
West of the road from Antwerp to Mons the people are being fed. East of the road the Germans did not permit it during the winter. In April, however, it was arranged that the Commission should also feed Northern France. In June General von Bissing permitted the Commission to furnish grain for seed, to be planted and harvested by Belgian peasants for their own use. The report of the Commission for the first year of the war showed that for the people of Belgium and the 2,500,000 French people hemmed in behind the German battle front, an expenditure of $10,000,000 a month was required.
The despatch of a shipload of food every other day from America during the winter constituted the largest commissary that the world has ever seen. “The Fleet of Mercy is constantly making voyages.” Every cent collected in America for the purchase of food was spent in America. It is said that up to May 1st the United States made gifts amounting to about six million dollars. The American Relief Commission today has branches not only in the United States, Canada and Holland, but also in London and Belgium and France. From sixteen American seaports food has been sent direct to Belgium. Forty-eight States, the District of Columbia and Hawaii, organized Belgian Relief Committees, and endless sub-committees. Thirty-seven of the States of the Union are represented by the women’s section.
Queen Elizabeth, now called the “Wandering Queen,” sent this letter to thank the women of this Commission:
“It gives me great pleasure to accept the invitation which has been transmitted to me to become a patroness of the Women’s Section of the American Commission for Relief in Belgium. I wish to extend to the women of America the deep gratitude of the women of Belgium for the work which they are doing for my people. The food which your country is daily providing to our women and children comes like a ray of sunshine in the darkest hour in Belgium’s history. The Belgian women have fought a brave fight, and are still fighting for the common cause of human liberty, so dear to every American woman’s heart.
“Elizabeth.”
By May 1st the New York Belgian Fund amounted to more than a million dollars. California raised over a hundred thousand in a day. Chicago has been conspicuous with large gifts. Kansas sent a great quantity of flour, and Mr. Wanamaker of Philadelphia shipped cargoes worth half a million dollars.
The New England Committee believes that its results up to May first are substantially as follows: Cash collected, $300,000; value of goods collected, $100,000; money sent from New England direct to New York, $50,000; and goods sent to New York, about $50,000. The Kermesse Flamande cleared $15,000, and Madame Vandervelde’s meetings raised about $14,000 in Boston alone. Three ship-loads of food and clothing left Boston harbour.