DISTRIBUTION OF FOODSTUFFS, CLOTHING, AND SUBSIDIES IN MONEY, IN THE PROVINCES
Nature of Merchandise.
Quantities in Tons.
| Despatched or | Wheat | Flour | Rice | Peas | Salt | Potatoes | Bacon | Maize | Sundry | Clothing | Subsidies |
| Remitted to | and | (value | to | ||||||||
| Beans | in | Provincial | |||||||||
| Francs) | Committees | ||||||||||
| (in France) | |||||||||||
| Province of | |||||||||||
| Antwerp | 3,525 | 1,247 | 126 | 2 | 713 | 100,880 | 300,000 | ||||
| Brussels and | |||||||||||
| District | 3,371 | 1,329 | 13 | 247 | 6 | 90 | 82 | 379,058 | 300,000 | ||
| Brabant | 2,962 | 1,486 | 31 | 116 | 4 | 24 | 548 | 57 | 101,916 | ||
| Western | |||||||||||
| Flanders | 542 | 519 | 59 | 48 | 20 | 23 | 41,059 | 170,000 | |||
| Eastern | |||||||||||
| Flanders | 4,419 | 1,982 | 37 | 46 | 4 | 3 | 1,120 | 14 | 300,000 | ||
| Hainaut | 5,602 | 3,739 | 258 | 350 | 74 | 181 | 293 | 81,493 | 550,000 | ||
| Liége | 3,356 | 1,242 | 5 | 200 | 80 | 4,860 | 280,000 | ||||
| Limburg | 1,539 | 1,466 | 11 | 22 | 200 | 35 | 41,477 | 160,000 | |||
| Luxemburg | 209 | 853 | 1 | 58 | 16,656 | 160,000 | |||||
| Namur | 1,011 | 346 | 60 | 150 | 89 | 95,307 | 203,000 | ||||
| General Stock, | |||||||||||
| Brussels | 446 | 119 | 8 2,268 | 38 | 239 | ||||||
| Various | |||||||||||
| Charities | 9,687 | ||||||||||
| Totals | 27,476 | 14,338 | 359 | 979 | 2,414 | 140 | 27 | 3,202 | 912 | 822,379 | 2,423,000 |
Since the month of January 1915 the National Committee has not ceased to extend its activities. But it is impossible to give more precise data. The German authorities no longer permit the Committee to publish its reports. In their dry, official manner they show us only too clearly what we are to think of the present "prosperity" of Belgium and the "normal state of the situation."
It will be seen that the activities of the National Committee are fruitful and extensive. But more and more money is required, as savings are exhausted and as the public coffers are emptied by the Germans.
In January 1915 the Sovereign Pontiff surrendered the Belgian contribution to Peter's Pence.
As 40 million frs. per month (£1,600,000) is being paid to the Germans, poverty is rapidly increasing. The number of Belgians deprived of all resources and obliged to live entirely on charity had risen by February to 1,500,000. It was estimated that by June it would be 2,500,000, or more than one-third of the total population. In February the nourishment of this famishing host already demanded 10 million frs. (£400,000) per month; soon it will demand 12 to 13 millions. In this conjuncture Mr. Hoover, the President of the American Commission, went begging to the British Government, which promised £100,000 per month provided Germany would cease to make requisitions in Flanders and levy the tax of 40 millions. Germany refused. How will it end?
Belgium's Gratitude to America.
Belgium knows that she owes her relief to the United States. Without American charity our country would perish in the distress into which the German exactions have plunged her. No one in Belgium will ever forget this, and it is in the name of the whole nation that King Albert has publicly thanked America.