An appeal has been made from the seat of war
for sufferers who seem to be in even more urgent need of help than the sick and wounded themselves. A Daily News' correspondent, who wrote from amongst the volunteers for the service of the sick and wounded at Briey, inserts a very touching cry for help, signed by the Mayors of Briey and of other small towns in the desolated region between Metz and Sedan. The departments of the Moselle, Meuse, Meurthe, and the .Ardennes, call, they say, for help in preserving the remaining population from actual starva-
tion The people of France depend for their subsistence on the grains which they raise and the cattle which they breed. In the sections of country that have been traversed by the German armies nothing remains of the provisions that had been accumu- lated in time of peace. Our houses, stables, and barns are burned or riddled with cannon-shots. The fields and meadows are trampled down by the tread of embattled hosts. Neither cereals nor grass have been harvested this autumn. All our beasts of burden, all our beeves, sheep, and swine have been taken from us. Our labourers are either pressed into the French Army as soldiers, or into the German Army as teamsters. There remains not even seed-corn. We are destitute of strength to prepare the trampled ground for seed for next season's harvest; de- stitute of material to sow ; destitute, in many places, of ground to sow upon ; as miles upon miles of territory are made in- violable by the plough, by reason of the sacred and terrible seed of human corpses with which they have been sown.'
'The Daily News has itself consented to receive subscriptions for *these poor people, and it states that "cheques should be crossed to the London and Westminster Bank, Temple Bar Branch ; and Post-Office orders should be made payable to NV. K. Hales, 20 Bouverie Street." We need not say that in our opinion these unhappy survivors of all their domestic peace and prosperity -deserve even more compassion than those whose sufferings are mainly very temporary sufferings of the physical kind.
Previous page
