"Poland comprises 127,500 square kilometers. One hundred thousand of these have been devastated by the battling armies. More than a million horses and two million head of horned cattle have been seized by the invaders, and in the whole of the 100,000 square kilometers in the possession of the soldiers not a grain of corn, not a scrap of meat, nor a drop of milk remain for the civil population. "The material losses up to the present are estimated at 1,000,000,000 rubles ($500,000,000). No fewer than 400,000 workmen have lost their means of livelihood.
"The state of things in Galicia is just as dreadful for the civil population—innocent victims of the war. Of 75,000 square kilometers all except 5,000 square kilometers around Cracow are in possession of the Russians. They commandeered 900,000 horses and about 200,000 head of horned cattle and seized all the grain, part of the salt fields, and the oil wells.
"The once rich province is a desert. Over a million inhabitants have sought refuge in other parts of Austria, and they are in sheer destitution."
Truly, "War is hell!"
RELIEF FOR BELGIAN SUFFERERS
Following the invasion and over-running of Belgium by the Germans, the problem of feeding the Belgian population became an urgent one. The invaders left the problem largely to the charitable sympathies of the civilized world, and from almost every quarter of the globe aid was sent in money or provisions for the stricken people. In spite of the enormous war drains upon the resources of the British Empire, every one of the Overseas Dominions did its full share in Belgian relief, while the United States, through the Rockefeller Foundation and other agencies, as well as the South American countries, also contributed to alleviate the suffering in the little kingdom. The contributions continued during more than two years and the relief was administered most efficiently by means of commissions.
RELIEF ASKED FOR SERBIA
On April 3, 1915, the leading United States newspapers printed an appeal received from Nish, the war capital of Serbia, which set forth a terrible situation in terms that confirmed a report already made public by Sir Thomas Lipton, who dedicated his famous steam yacht, the Erin, as a hospital ship for use in the Mediterranean, and visited Serbia in February and March. The appeal was dated February 23 and said in substance as follows:
"Typhus is raging in Serbia, and unless immediate aid be sent the mortality will be appalling. "Typhus is a filth disease and is spread by lice, which flourish only in dirt. There are not enough buildings to house the sick and they lie huddled together on dirty straw.
"They have not changed their clothes for six months, and consequently personal cleanliness, which is absolutely essential in checking the disease, is impossible. They cannot get proper nourishment, as there is not enough available, nor is there money to buy it if it were.