Page:The Destruction of Poland - Toynbee - 1916.djvu/6



''The quotation on the title page of this pamphlet is taken from an appeal by the American Poles to the British Government. The American Poles drew attention to the terrible destitution which has descended upon the provinces of Russian Poland occupied by Germany, and urged a relaxation of the British Blockade on this unhappy population's behalf. The British Government replied by showing that the sufferings of Poland were not due to the general effect of the Blockade, but to the specific and deliberate policy of the German and Austro-Hungarian Governments in draining the resources of the conquered territory into their own store-chambers. If the two Governments will give satisfactory guarantees that this spoliation shall cease, the British Government will gladly allow supplies for the relief of the Poles to be imported into Poland from the United States. But it would merely be assisting Germany without benefiting the Poles if these same supplies were admitted into Poland under the system of German organisation which is set out in the following pages. A body of unimpeachable evidence is here presented, which reveals how subtle and how sinister this organisation has been. The German vampire is draining the life-blood of its Polish victim into its own exhausted veins.''