People will read this who have never known the thirst of the
battlefield or the parched throat that follows loss of blood; people
who, by the turning of a tap, may have all the water they want.
Perhaps among them there are some who will face this problem of water
as America has faced Belgium's problem of food. For the Belgian Army
has no money at all for sterilisers, for pocket filters; has not the
means to inoculate the army against typhoid; has little of anything.
The revenues that would normally support the army are being
collected--in addition to a war indemnity--by Germany.
Any hope that conditions would be improved by a general spring
movement into uncontaminated territory has been dispelled. The war has
become a gigantic siege, varied only by sorties and assaults. As long
ago as November, 1914, the situation as to drinking water was
intolerable. I quote again from the diary taken from the body of a
German officer after the battle of the Yser--a diary published in full
in an earlier chapter.
"The water is bad, quite green, indeed; but all the same we drink
it--we can get nothing else. Man is brought down to the level of the
brute beast."
There is little or no typhoid among the British troops. They, too, no
doubt, have realised the value of conservation, and to inoculation
have added careful supervision of wells and of watercourses.
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