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Commission for Relief in Belgium

December 20, 2023

The Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB, or simply Belgian Relief) was an international, predominantly American, organization that arranged for the supply of food to German-occupied Belgium and northern France during the First World War.

The Committee for Relief in Belgium in Lille, France, a local group

Its leading figure was chairman, and future President of the United States, Herbert Hoover.

Origins edit

When the Great War broke out, Hoover was a mining engineer and financier living in London. When hostilities erupted, he found himself surrounded by tens of thousands of American tourists trying to get home. Their paper securities and travelers' checks were not being recognized and very few of them had enough hard currency to buy passage home, even if any ships had been sailing; most voyages had been canceled. Hoover set up and organized an "American committee" to "get the busted Yankee home," making loans and cashing checks as needed. By October 1914 the American Committee had sent some 120,000 Americans home, and in the end lost just $300 in unpaid debt.[1] This episode brought Hoover and his organizational talents to the attention of the American ambassador, Walter Hines Page, and several other key people in London, who came to him in late October with a request for his help with a much larger problem:

In 1914, after being invaded by Germany, Belgium suffered a food shortage. The tiny nation, at the time among the most urbanized countries in Europe, only grew enough food to meet 20–25% of its needs. Nonetheless, the German occupiers were requisitioning what was there to help feed their army. The civilian population, in addition to the demoralizing effect of being occupied by Germany, faced imminent starvation unless a large quantity of food was quickly brought in.[2]

However, buying and transporting food to Belgium was no simple matter, as American expatriate mining engineer Millard Shaler found out when he tried to do just that. Great Britain had imposed an economic blockade on Germany and its occupied countries. If Shaler brought food in, the British recognized, the Germans would just requisition it.

Seeking a solution to this dilemma, Shaler contacted ambassador Page, and Page contacted Hoover.

How the Commission worked edit

 
Poster requesting clothing for occupied France and Belgium
 
1917 poster for Belgian relief

The commission's task was to obtain foodstuffs from abroad and ship them into Belgium, where CRB monitors supervised distribution by members of the Comité National de Secours et d'Alimentation (CNSA), the Belgian organization headed by Émile Francqui. This was necessary because CNSA employees, living under the German occupation, were legally required to obey the orders of German soldiers, whereas CRB people were not. The food imported by the CRB remained the property of the American ambassador to Belgium, Brand Whitlock, throughout the distribution process and right up to the point of being placed on a plate.

Obstacles and challenges edit

The CRB had to operate in the face of resentment from both of the warring sides. The Germans resented the presence of the Americans in the country and were bitter about the British blockade, which they saw as the reason for Belgium requiring foreign aid in the first place. Many influential British policymakers, notably Lord Kitchener and Winston Churchill, felt that Germany needed to either feed the Belgians themselves or deal with the resulting riots right behind their lines, and that international help to relieve that pressure was helping the Germans and thereby lengthening the war. At several points both sides tried to shut down the relief, and throughout the war there was a constant problem of German submarines sinking relief ships, especially at times when tensions with the U.S. were highest.[2]

In the end, the CRB bought and shipped 11.4 billion pounds (5.7 million tons) of food to 9.5 million civilian victims of the war.[3] The committee chartered ships to carry the food to Belgian ports under safe conduct terms arranged by Hoover in meetings with the British and German authorities.

Notwithstanding the special CRB flags flown by ships and enormous banners covering them, there were losses: the Harpalyce returning from Rotterdam after delivering a shipment was torpedoed by the German submarine SM UB-4 in April 1915 with the loss of 15 lives.

Flour sacks edit

Between 1914 and 1919, the CRB operated entirely with voluntary efforts and was able to feed close to 10 millions people in occupied Belgium and northern France[4] by raising the necessary money, obtaining voluntary contributions of food, shipping the food past the German submarine blockades and army occupied areas, and controlling the food distribution in Belgium.

The CRB shipped 697,116,000 pounds of flour to Belgium and evidence indicates that sugar and grains were also sent. The flour was packaged in cotton flour sacks by American mills. The movement of these bags throughout Belgium was carefully controlled by the CRB since cotton was in great demand for the manufacture of German ammunition and also because the CRB feared that the flour sacks would be taken out of Belgium, refilled with inferior flour, and resold as relief flour. As a result, the empty flour sacks were carefully accounted for and distributed to professional schools, sewing workrooms, convents, and individual artists.[5]

Separate from the trade schools of Belgium, the professional schools specialized in training girls to sew, embroider, and make lace, and the sewing workrooms were large centers established in the major Belgian cities during the war to provide work for the thousands of unemployed. Girls and women made famous Belgian lace, embroidered textiles and repaired and remade clothing in these workrooms.

The flour sacks were used by these various Belgian groups to make new clothing, accessories, pillows, bags, and other functional items. Many women chose to embroider over the mill logo and the brand name of flour, but entirely original designs were sometimes created on the sacks and then embroidered, painted, or stenciled on the fabric. Frequent additions to the flour sacks were Belgian messages of gratitude to the Americans; embellishments of lace; the Belgian and American flags; the Belgian lion; the Gallic cock; the American eagle; symbols of peace, strength, and courage; the Belgian colors of red, yellow, and black; and the American colors of red, white, and blue. Artists, in particular, used the flour sacks as the canvas background for creating original oil paintings.

Differences appear in the designs and messages of the embroidered and painted flour sacks, due to the fact that Belgium is composed of two distinct groups of people: the Walloons or French speaking people in the south and the Flemish or Dutch speaking population in the north.

The completed flour sacks were carefully controlled and distributed to shops and organizations in Belgium, England, and the United States for the purpose of raising funds for food relief and to aid the prisoners of war. Many were also given as gifts to the member of the Commission for Relief in Belgium out of gratitude for the aid given the Belgian people.

Herbert Hoover was given several hundred of these flour sacks as gifts and the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum has one of the largest collections of World War I flour sacks in the world.[6]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Kittredge, Tracy B. The History of the Commission for Relief in Belgium. Privately published, circa 1917.
  2. ^ a b Nash, George H. The Life of Herbert Hoover: The Humanitarian, 1914-1917. New York: Norton, 1988.
  3. ^ Gay, George I. _Public Relations of the Commission for Relief in Belgium_, vol. 2 Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1929.
  4. ^ DE SCHAEPDRIJVER Sophie, La Belgique et la Première Guerre mondiale, Bruxelles, Archives et musée de la littérature, 2004 (Documents pour l’Histoire des Francophonies, 4), p. 111
  5. ^ "Thank you, America: Flour Sacks from Belgium," Reflections (Kansas State Historical Society). (2014) 8#2 pp 2–3 online
  6. ^ . Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2013.

Further reading edit

  • Burner, David. Herbert Hoover: A Public Life (1979) pp 72–95
  • Gay, George I. Statistical review of relief operations (Stanford, 1925) in Google
  • den Hertog, Johan. "The Commission for Relief in Belgium and the Political Diplomatic History of the First World War," Diplomacy & Statecraft (2010) 21#4 pp593–613, abstract 3.
  • Jeansonne, Glen S. "Hoover goes to Belgium" History Today (2015) 65#1 pp 19–24.
  • Little, Branden. Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB), in: International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
  • Little, Branden. "The humanitarian mobilization of American cities for Belgian Relief, 1914–1918," Les Cahiers bruxellois 46 (August 2014) pp 121–38.
  • Little, Branden. "Humanitarian relief in Europe and the analogue of war, 1914-1918," in Michael S. Neiberg, and Jennifer D. Keene, eds. Finding common ground. New directions in First World War Studies (Brill, 2010) pp. 139–158.
  • Miller, Jeffrey B. Yanks Behind the Lines: How the Commission for Relief in Belgium Saved Millions from Starvation During World War I (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).
  • Nash, George H. The Life of Herbert Hoover: The Humanitarian, 1914–1917 (1988), 498pp, comprehensive scholarly history
  • Nash, George H. "An American Epic": Herbert Hoover and Belgian Relief in World War I," Prologue (1989) 21#1 pp 75–86. online
  • Bertrams, Kenneth (2015). "The domestic uses of Belgian–American 'mutual understanding': the commission for relief in Belgium educational foundation, 1920–1940". Journal of Transatlantic Studies. 13 (4): 326–343. doi:10.1080/14794012.2015.1088325.
  • Druelle-Korn, Clotilde (2019). Feeding Occupied France during World War I: Herbert Hoover and the Blockade. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-05562-2.

Primary sources edit

  • Gay, George I. The Commission for Relief in Belgium. Statistical review of relief operations. Five years, November 1, 1914, to August 31, 1919 and to final liquidation (Stanford University Press, 1925)
  • Gay, George I., ed. Public Relations of the Commission for Relief in Belgium: Documents (2 vol 1929) online
  • Gibson, Hugh. A Journal from Our Legation in Belgium (1917) online
  • Hoover, Herbert. An American Epic: Vol. I: The Relief of Belgium and Northern France, 1914–1930 (1959) text search
  • Hoover, Herbert. The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: Years of Adventure, 1874–1920 (1951) pp 152–237
  • Hunt, Edward Eyre. War Bread: A Personal Narrative of the War and Relief in Belgium (New York: Holt, 1916.) online
  • (Hoover Presidential Library)

External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Commission for Relief in Belgium.
  • Nash, George H., Europe Remembers Herbert Hoover, “Napoleon of Mercy”, Hoover Institution, January 30, 2007

December 20, 2023
commission, relief, belgium, simply, belgian, relief, international, predominantly, american, organization, that, arranged, supply, food, german, occupied, belgium, northern, france, during, first, world, committee, relief, belgium, lille, france, local, group. The Commission for Relief in Belgium CRB or simply Belgian Relief was an international predominantly American organization that arranged for the supply of food to German occupied Belgium and northern France during the First World War The Committee for Relief in Belgium in Lille France a local groupIts leading figure was chairman and future President of the United States Herbert Hoover Contents 1 Origins 2 How the Commission worked 3 Obstacles and challenges 4 Flour sacks 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 7 1 Primary sources 8 External linksOrigins editWhen the Great War broke out Hoover was a mining engineer and financier living in London When hostilities erupted he found himself surrounded by tens of thousands of American tourists trying to get home Their paper securities and travelers checks were not being recognized and very few of them had enough hard currency to buy passage home even if any ships had been sailing most voyages had been canceled Hoover set up and organized an American committee to get the busted Yankee home making loans and cashing checks as needed By October 1914 the American Committee had sent some 120 000 Americans home and in the end lost just 300 in unpaid debt 1 This episode brought Hoover and his organizational talents to the attention of the American ambassador Walter Hines Page and several other key people in London who came to him in late October with a request for his help with a much larger problem In 1914 after being invaded by Germany Belgium suffered a food shortage The tiny nation at the time among the most urbanized countries in Europe only grew enough food to meet 20 25 of its needs Nonetheless the German occupiers were requisitioning what was there to help feed their army The civilian population in addition to the demoralizing effect of being occupied by Germany faced imminent starvation unless a large quantity of food was quickly brought in 2 However buying and transporting food to Belgium was no simple matter as American expatriate mining engineer Millard Shaler found out when he tried to do just that Great Britain had imposed an economic blockade on Germany and its occupied countries If Shaler brought food in the British recognized the Germans would just requisition it Seeking a solution to this dilemma Shaler contacted ambassador Page and Page contacted Hoover How the Commission worked edit nbsp Poster requesting clothing for occupied France and Belgium nbsp 1917 poster for Belgian reliefThe commission s task was to obtain foodstuffs from abroad and ship them into Belgium where CRB monitors supervised distribution by members of the Comite National de Secours et d Alimentation CNSA the Belgian organization headed by Emile Francqui This was necessary because CNSA employees living under the German occupation were legally required to obey the orders of German soldiers whereas CRB people were not The food imported by the CRB remained the property of the American ambassador to Belgium Brand Whitlock throughout the distribution process and right up to the point of being placed on a plate Obstacles and challenges editThe CRB had to operate in the face of resentment from both of the warring sides The Germans resented the presence of the Americans in the country and were bitter about the British blockade which they saw as the reason for Belgium requiring foreign aid in the first place Many influential British policymakers notably Lord Kitchener and Winston Churchill felt that Germany needed to either feed the Belgians themselves or deal with the resulting riots right behind their lines and that international help to relieve that pressure was helping the Germans and thereby lengthening the war At several points both sides tried to shut down the relief and throughout the war there was a constant problem of German submarines sinking relief ships especially at times when tensions with the U S were highest 2 In the end the CRB bought and shipped 11 4 billion pounds 5 7 million tons of food to 9 5 million civilian victims of the war 3 The committee chartered ships to carry the food to Belgian ports under safe conduct terms arranged by Hoover in meetings with the British and German authorities Notwithstanding the special CRB flags flown by ships and enormous banners covering them there were losses the Harpalyce returning from Rotterdam after delivering a shipment was torpedoed by the German submarine SM UB 4 in April 1915 with the loss of 15 lives Flour sacks editBetween 1914 and 1919 the CRB operated entirely with voluntary efforts and was able to feed close to 10 millions people in occupied Belgium and northern France 4 by raising the necessary money obtaining voluntary contributions of food shipping the food past the German submarine blockades and army occupied areas and controlling the food distribution in Belgium The CRB shipped 697 116 000 pounds of flour to Belgium and evidence indicates that sugar and grains were also sent The flour was packaged in cotton flour sacks by American mills The movement of these bags throughout Belgium was carefully controlled by the CRB since cotton was in great demand for the manufacture of German ammunition and also because the CRB feared that the flour sacks would be taken out of Belgium refilled with inferior flour and resold as relief flour As a result the empty flour sacks were carefully accounted for and distributed to professional schools sewing workrooms convents and individual artists 5 Separate from the trade schools of Belgium the professional schools specialized in training girls to sew embroider and make lace and the sewing workrooms were large centers established in the major Belgian cities during the war to provide work for the thousands of unemployed Girls and women made famous Belgian lace embroidered textiles and repaired and remade clothing in these workrooms The flour sacks were used by these various Belgian groups to make new clothing accessories pillows bags and other functional items Many women chose to embroider over the mill logo and the brand name of flour but entirely original designs were sometimes created on the sacks and then embroidered painted or stenciled on the fabric Frequent additions to the flour sacks were Belgian messages of gratitude to the Americans embellishments of lace the Belgian and American flags the Belgian lion the Gallic cock the American eagle symbols of peace strength and courage the Belgian colors of red yellow and black and the American colors of red white and blue Artists in particular used the flour sacks as the canvas background for creating original oil paintings Differences appear in the designs and messages of the embroidered and painted flour sacks due to the fact that Belgium is composed of two distinct groups of people the Walloons or French speaking people in the south and the Flemish or Dutch speaking population in the north The completed flour sacks were carefully controlled and distributed to shops and organizations in Belgium England and the United States for the purpose of raising funds for food relief and to aid the prisoners of war Many were also given as gifts to the member of the Commission for Relief in Belgium out of gratitude for the aid given the Belgian people Herbert Hoover was given several hundred of these flour sacks as gifts and the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Museum has one of the largest collections of World War I flour sacks in the world 6 See also editBelgium in World War I Belgian American Educational Foundation University Foundation Oswald ChewReferences edit Kittredge Tracy B The History of the Commission for Relief in Belgium Privately published circa 1917 a b Nash George H The Life of Herbert Hoover The Humanitarian 1914 1917 New York Norton 1988 Gay George I Public Relations of the Commission for Relief in Belgium vol 2 Stanford Stanford University Press 1929 DE SCHAEPDRIJVER Sophie La Belgique et la Premiere Guerre mondiale Bruxelles Archives et musee de la litterature 2004 Documents pour l Histoire des Francophonies 4 p 111 Thank you America Flour Sacks from Belgium Reflections Kansas State Historical Society 2014 8 2 pp 2 3 online The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum Archived from the original on 15 February 2013 Retrieved 16 April 2013 Further reading editBurner David Herbert Hoover A Public Life 1979 pp 72 95 Gay George I Statistical review of relief operations Stanford 1925 in Google den Hertog Johan The Commission for Relief in Belgium and the Political Diplomatic History of the First World War Diplomacy amp Statecraft 2010 21 4 pp593 613 abstract 3 Jeansonne Glen S Hoover goes to Belgium History Today 2015 65 1 pp 19 24 Little Branden Commission for Relief in Belgium CRB in International Encyclopedia of the First World War Little Branden The humanitarian mobilization of American cities for Belgian Relief 1914 1918 Les Cahiers bruxellois 46 August 2014 pp 121 38 Little Branden Humanitarian relief in Europe and the analogue of war 1914 1918 in Michael S Neiberg and Jennifer D Keene eds Finding common ground New directions in First World War Studies Brill 2010 pp 139 158 Miller Jeffrey B Yanks Behind the Lines How the Commission for Relief in Belgium Saved Millions from Starvation During World War I Rowman amp Littlefield 2020 Nash George H The Life of Herbert Hoover The Humanitarian 1914 1917 1988 498pp comprehensive scholarly history Nash George H An American Epic Herbert Hoover and Belgian Relief in World War I Prologue 1989 21 1 pp 75 86 online Bertrams Kenneth 2015 The domestic uses of Belgian American mutual understanding the commission for relief in Belgium educational foundation 1920 1940 Journal of Transatlantic Studies 13 4 326 343 doi 10 1080 14794012 2015 1088325 Druelle Korn Clotilde 2019 Feeding Occupied France during World War I Herbert Hoover and the Blockade Cham Switzerland Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978 3 030 05562 2 Primary sources edit Gay George I The Commission for Relief in Belgium Statistical review of relief operations Five years November 1 1914 to August 31 1919 and to final liquidation Stanford University Press 1925 Gay George I ed Public Relations of the Commission for Relief in Belgium Documents 2 vol 1929 online Gibson Hugh A Journal from Our Legation in Belgium 1917 online Hoover Herbert An American Epic Vol I The Relief of Belgium and Northern France 1914 1930 1959 text search Hoover Herbert The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover Years of Adventure 1874 1920 1951 pp 152 237 Hunt Edward Eyre War Bread A Personal Narrative of the War and Relief in Belgium New York Holt 1916 online Commission for Relief in Belgium Hoover Presidential Library External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Commission for Relief in Belgium Nash George H Europe Remembers Herbert Hoover Napoleon of Mercy Hoover Institution January 30 2007 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Commission for Relief in Belgium amp oldid 1189690929, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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