reatment would suffer for
it. One of them was bold enough to protest to the visitors against a
particularly flagrant case of ill-usage. That man disappeared a few days
later.

[Sidenote: The Belgian frontier is closed.]

Long before this the food problem had become acute in Roubaix.
Simultaneously with the establishment of the system of personal control
over the inhabitants the Germans closed the frontier between France and
Belgium and forbade us to approach within half a mile of the border
line. The immediate effect of this isolation was to reduce to an
insignificant trickle the copious stream of foodstuffs which until then
poured in from Belgium--not the starving Belgium of fiction, but the
well supplied Belgium of fact.

[Sidenote: Fabulous prices for meat.]

Butchers and bakers and provision dealers had to shut their shops, and
the town became almost wholly dependent on supplies brought in by the
American Relief Commission. Fresh meat was soon unobtainable, except by
those few people who could afford to pay fabulous prices for joints
smuggled across the frontier. Months ago meat cost 32 francs a kilogram
(about 13 shillings a pound) and an egg cost 1 franc 25 (a shilling).
Obviously such things were beyond the reach of the bulk of the people,
and had it not been for the efforts of the Relief Commission we should
all have starved.

[Sidenote: Foodstuffs supplied by the Relief Commission.]

The commission opened a food depot, a local committee issued tickets for
the various articles, and rich and poor alike had to wait their turn at
the depot to procure the allotted rations. The chief foodstuffs supplied
were: Rice, flaked maize, bacon, lard, coffee, bread, condensed milk
(occasionally), haricot beans, lentils, and a very small allowance of
sugar. Potatoes could not be bought at any price.

[Sidenote: The Germans intercept mine food.]

Unfortunately, though I regret that I should have to record it, there is
evidence that by some means or other the German Army contrived to
intercept for itself a part of the food sent by the American Commission.
One who had good reason to know told me that more than once trainloads
which, according to a notification sent to him, had left Brussels for
Roubaix failed to arrive. I know also that analysis of the bread showed
that in some cases German rye flour, including 30 per cent of sawdust,
had been substituted for the white American flour, producing an
indigestible putty-like