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The Soon Coming Judgment Of God Upon America and How To Escape It 222
in policy “fundamentally alter[ed] financial relations with the Allies.”
864
This had been the goal of the bankers all along but it just took a little while to bring
official government policy in line with their own personal goals.
America Aids Germany
After the outbreak of WW I it became apparent that keeping the war going would not be
easy. As a lengthy war was the goal of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, certain
conditions needed to be remedied. First and primary was the issue of food and coal shortages in
Germany. Without Germany the war could not continue and Germany needed food and coal.
John Hamill in his book The Strange Career of Mr. Hoover explains how this was
remedied. Hamill quotes a March 4, 1915 an article appearing in the German newspaper
Nordeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung which stated: “Justice, however, demands that publicity should
be given to the preeminent part taken by the German authorities in Belgium in the solution of
this problem [of food and coal]. The initiative came from them and it was only due to their
continuous relations with the American Relief Committee that the provisioning question was
solved.”
865
In another article on March 13, 1915, the Nordeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung noted that
large quantities of food were arriving to Germany from Belgium by rail. Scholler's Yearbook for
Legislation, Administration and Political Economy for 1916 showed the extent of food
shipments from Belgium to Germany. They recorded that “one billion pounds of meat, one and a
half billion pounds of potatoes, one and a half billion pounds of bread, and one hundred million
pounds of butter had been shipped from Belgium to Germany” in 1916.
866
Belgium food relief originated as a result of Germany's occupation of Belgium. Germany
had seen Belgium, who was neutral, as the easiest route to invade France. The small Belgium
military resisted the Germans and as a result Belgium was defeated and came under German
occupation. Since Germany was already short of food, the military seized much of Belgium's
food supply for their own consumption. This wasn't much because Belgium was a large importer
of food. But as a result of German occupation Belgium became subject to the English Naval
blockade and couldn't import food any longer. Ten million Belgium men, woman and children
faced starvation. Herbert Hoover, who would later became president, took over the leadership of
the Committee for Relief of Belgium. He was responsible for raising more than $1 billion for
Belgium relief.
867
Hoover's participation with the Committee for Relief of Belgium (CRB) was not an act of
humanitarian aid for Belgium, it was to help the Germans. This made the CRB a covert
operation. Hoover needed to convince the English that his food would not reach the Germans so
that they would allow it to pass through the blockade. Hamill notes that the Belgium relief's
original organizer was Hoover's long time friend and business associate Emile Francqui. He
further states that “ Francqui opened the offices of the Belgium Relief in his bank, Societe
Generale, as a one-man show, with a letter of permission from the German Governor General
von der Goltz dated October 16, 1914.” Hence, he writes: “That is what the Belgium Relief
Committee was organized for—to keep Germany in food.”
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