Page:The Destruction of Poland - Toynbee - 1916.djvu/28

 mostly requisitioned by Germany. ''At first the invaders did everything they could to persuade the artisans to emigrate to Germany, which is at present short of labour. But, when it was found that only a few thousand yielded to persuasion, the President of Police issued a proclamation (end of September) in which, after announcing that the factories would soon be altogether closed and that no relief would be distributed during the winter from any source, he offered navvy work on the repair of the roads and bridges, work which it was known would employ only a limited number, and that only for a short time, as the sole alternative to emigration. That is the dilemma which the .artisans have now to face''.

"This leads to the question of prices; The German authorities have commandeered all provisions. Wheat may now be sold only by the Goods Importation Company, which buys it up cheap from the peasants and sells the resultant flour (war-flour) at exorbitant prices to the townspeople, who find their bread 'simply uneatable,' as well as 10 per cent, above the price to which they were accustomed. The same company has the monopoly of sugar and alcohol. 'Huge quantities' of pulse and oatmeal have been exported to Germany, and their price at Lodz has gone up fourfold. The present scheme for exporting to Germany 12-15 million quintals of potatoes will cause a similar rise in what is now ' almost the only resource left to the poor.' Almost all the cattle have already been exported, and the price of meat, which for some months has been quite beyond the reach of the