A correspondent sent to the Times of Friday week some
account, derived mostly from official figures, of the German exactions in Russian Poland. There have been both illegal and quasi-legal exactions. From Lodz £3,300,000 worth of machinery and raw materials has been taken away, and from Czestochowa £1,800,000 worth. In November, 1914, the Russians, owing to the general distress, suspended several taxes, but the Germans have reimposed them, and have actually increased many of them. Numerous new taxes have also been introduced. Warsaw and Lodz are now probably the poorest industrial cities in Europe. The starving people have to raise onerous loans through the German banks in order to keep themselves alive while paying the contributions and taxes. The sale of vodka, prohibited by the Russians, is again permitted, and from this the Germans draw a. monthly revenue of about £700,000. Altogether, the Germano are drawing from the ravaged part of Russian Poland which they occupy approxi- mately the same income as the Russians drew in peace from the whole country.
