BR / “SAVE EUROPE NOW” TO THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, 7 SEPT. 1945
BRACERS 132620. TL(CAR) (Draft). McMaster. B&R F45.01
Proofread by K. Blackwell

To the editor of The Manchester Guardian

Sir, —

Correspondents in Berlin have been sending to their newspapers a description of conditions in that city which must have been read by many with grave disquiet. Expelled from their homes in the Sudetenland, East Prussia, and the whole vast region of Germany taken over by the Poles, sometimes at thirty minutes’ notice and without the provision of food or transport, a horde of Germans is struggling daily into Berlin — and being turned away, because there is no food for them. The majority are old men, women, and children. Some of these persons, too weak to wander farther, have been seen under the bomb-wrecked roof of the Stettiner railway station, dead or dying. “One woman”, writes the reporter of a leading London newspaper, “emaciated, with dark rings under her eyes and sores breaking out all over her face, could only mutter self-condemnation because she was unable to feed her two whimpering babies. I watched her trying desperately to force milk from her milkless breasts — a pitiful effort that only left her crying at her failure.” The correspondent of another responsible London paper writes that “at a conservative estimate, given me by Dr. Karl Biaer, anti-Nazi, now installed as head of Berlin’s Social Welfare Committee, there are 8,000,000 homeless nomads milling about the areas of the provinces around Berlin. If you take in the Sudeten Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia and those on the move from elsewhere, the figure of those for whom no food can be provided rises to 13,000,000 at least. This proportion of Germany’s population must die before winter if nothing is done.” If we call attention to this vast tragedy it is certainly not because we fail to realize how grievously our allies are suffering, nor because we would wish any preference to be given to ex-enemy nationals. Nothing is more urgent than the speediest relief of Europe as a whole. “I believe”, said Sir Arthur Salter recently in the House of Commons, “that if the lorries that we and the American Army have near the spot where they are required were used quickly the transport problem of Europe could be solved. I believe that if the reserves of meat and clothing which the armies have were freed and quickly used a great deal could be done to meet the other necessities of Europe.” We whole-heartedly endorse this plea. But we are profoundly troubled by even the bare possibility that mass starvation cannot be prevented without some cut in our own rations, and that the authorities may hesitate to ask us, after six years of war, to make this sacrifice, and also by the fear that, amidst so much misery, the actual death by hunger of German nationals may be disregarded. We do not think that the Government need feel such hesitation. It is not in accordance with the traditions of this country to allow children — even the children of ex-enemies — to starve. But we have reason to believe that in any case numbers of our fellow-countrymen would be willing to make some voluntary sacrifice in this cause. We ask, therefore, all who read this letter and who share our concern immediately to send a postcard (not a letter) to “Save Europe Now”, 144, Southampton Row, London, W.C.1, giving their name and address and saying that they will gladly have their rations cut if thereby alone men, women, and children of whatever nationality may be saved from intolerable suffering. — Yours, etc.,1

• 1

  Yours, etc., See B&R F45.01 for the other signatories.