If the Germans had absorbed any considerable quantity
of this food the population of Belgium would not be alive today."
The plan of operation of the Belgian Commission needs some description.
Besides the headquarters in London there was an office in Brussels, and,
as Rotterdam was the port of entry for all Belgian supplies, a
transshipping office for commission goods was opened in that city. The
office building was at 98 Haringvliet, formerly the residence of a Dutch
merchant prince.
Captain J. F. Lucey, the first Rotterdam director, sat in a roomy office
on the second floor overlooking the Meuse. From his windows he could see
the commission barges as they left for Belgium, their huge canvas flags
bearing the inscription "Belgian Relief Committee." He was a nervous,
big, beardless American, a volunteer who had left his business to
organize and direct a great transshipping office in an alien land for an
alien people.
Out of nothing he created a large staff of clerks, wrung from the Dutch
Government special permits, loaded the immense cargoes received from
England into canal boats, obtained passports for cargoes and crews, and
shipped the foodstuffs consigned personally to Mr. Brand Whitlock.
Something of what was done at this point may be understood from a
reference in the first annual report of the commission published October
31, 1915:
The chartering and management of an entire fleet of vessels, together
with agency control practically throughout the world, has been carried
out for the commission quite free of the usual charges by large
transportation firms who offered these concessions in the cause of
humanity.
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