The Starving Children of France
It will be impossible for any humane person, or for that matter, any humane Government, to be unmoved by the appeal made in the Sunday Times by Mr. Howard Kershner, Director of Relief for the American Friends' Service Committee, on behalf of the starving children of southern France. The pitiable story he tells is that of scores of thousands of children losing weight, height and vitality from lack of food, and of that small proportion of the whole number, some 85,000 of the most needy, to whom his organi- sation was able to give some relief during the past two winters. Mr. Kushner maintains that the Germans never interfered with the work, perhaps because the little food the organisation had did not make any greater accumulation of French food anywhere such as would have been profitable for the enemy to take. Now the supplies are exhausted, and the good work done hitherto must come to an end unless Washington. and London give navicerts to bring food from America France, it will be remembered, is only one of the countries where starvation is working havoc from which the population will not recover for a generation. It is essential that we should not send relief which will only benefit the Germans. Yet it is unreasonable to turn a deaf ear to such an appeal as that of Mr. Kershner. He offers an assurance that help sent would go to the children who will starve without it. Some risk was taken when food supplies were sent to Greece. The same risk ought to be taken on behalf of the children of France—and without hesitation. It will be a poor satisfaction to liberate Europe if a great part of its population is permanently injured. France, moreover, is and will be again our ally.
