The British Local Government Board issued a report on infant welfare in
Germany, May 17, 1918, from which the following facts are taken:
During the war there has been a heavy fall in the number of births
in Germany. The first three years alone of the war reduced by over
2,000,000 the number of babies who would have been born had peace
prevailed. Some 40 per cent. fewer babies were born in 1916 than
in 1913. The infantile death rate has been kept well down, but is
50 per cent. higher than in Great Britain.
The birth rate, which had risen from 36.1 per 1,000 inhabitants in
the decade 1841-1850 to 39.1 per 1,000 in the period 1871-1880,
fell in the succeeding decades to 36.8, 36.1, and 31.9. The rate
for the last year of the period 1901-1910 was under 30 per 1,000,
and the continuance of the fall brought the rate as low as 28.3 in
1912.
In 1913 there were 1,839,000 live births in Germany; in 1916 there
were only 1,103,000--a decrease of 40 per cent. as compared with
1913. The corresponding figures for England and Wales (785,520
live births in 1916 against 881,890 in 1913) show a decrease of
10.9 per cent.
In 1913 the infant mortality rate for Germany was 151 per 1,000,
as compared with 108 in England and Wales. The rates in 1914 for
Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria (comprising nearly 80 per cent. of
the total population of Germany) were 164, 173, and 193 per 1,000
respectively. The abnormal increase in infant mortality during the
first months of the war is shown by the fact that in Prussia in
the third quarter of 1914 the rate rose from 128 to 143; in Saxony
from 140 to 242; and in Bavaria from 170 to 239.
The principal measure adopted in Germany to promote infant
welfare during the war has been the distribution of the
imperial maternity grants. "Necessity" must first be proved, but
instructions have been given that the term "necessity" is to
be liberally interpreted. There was a general demand that some
further provision should be made for soldiers' wives who could
not meet the extra expenses connected with the birth of a child,
and by a Federal Order, published on Dec. 3, 1914, provision was
made for the payment (partly from imperial funds and partly from
the funds of the sickness insurance societies) of the following
allowances:
(a) A single payment of $6.25 toward the expenses of confinement.
(b) An allowance of 25 cents daily, including Sundays and
holidays, for eight weeks, at least six of which must be after the
confinement.
(d) A grant up to $2.50 for medical attendance during pregnancy if
needed.
(d) An allowance for breast-feeding at the rate of 12-1/2 cents
a day, including Sundays and holidays, for 12 weeks after
confinement.
These grants were afterward extended to women whose husbands were
employed on patriotic auxiliary service and women who were themselves
employed on such service. In addition to this special measure, steps
were taken to encourage the formation of local societies for promoting
infant welfare and the establishment by the societies of infant welfare
centres. Steps were taken to protect illegitimate children by assisting
unmarried mothers from municipal funds and to give expectant and
nursing mothers additional rations of food.
* * * * *
As a result of intensive farming propaganda, the acreage of cereals
and potatoes in England and Wales in 1917 was 8,302,000, an increase
of 2,042,000 over 1916. It is estimated that the tillage in 1917
in Scotland increased 300,000 acres over 1916, and in Ireland the
figures showed an increase of 1,500,000 acres, making a total of about
4,000,000 acres increase in the United Kingdom in the year. This was
accomplished in the face of the fact that in England and Wales alone
there were 200,000 fewer male laborers on the land in 1917 than before
the war. It is estimated that the United Kingdom in 1918-19 will
produce 80 per cent. of the total breadstuff requirements for the year,
whereas in 1916-17 the production was but 20 per cent. of the needs.
* * * * *
The volunteers furnished by Ireland, divided between Ulster and the
rest of the country, were as follows:
Rest of
Year. Ulster. Ireland. Total.
1914 26,283 17,851 44,134
1915 19,020 27,351 46,371
1916 7,305 11,752 19,057
1917 5,830 8,193 14,023
------ ------ -------
58,438 65,147 123,585
* * * * *
The Parliamentary Under Secretary to the British War Office, Mr.
Macpherson, in a statement in Parliament, May 3, 1918, gave the
following figures of Chaplains in the war, killed, died of wounds, or
died of disease while on service in the war. The figures do not include
colonial Chaplains or the Chaplains of the Indian Ecclesiastical
Establishment:
Church of England 57
Roman Catholic 19
Presbyterian 4
Methodist 3
United Board 3
--
Total 86
* * * * *
The Government of Costa Rica declared war on Germany May 23, 1918,
bringing the number of nations aligned against the Central Powers to
a total of twenty-one. Of the other Central American States Panama,
Nicaragua, and Guatemala had issued declarations of war. Honduras
severed diplomatic relations, and San Salvador proclaimed neutrality,
but explained that it was friendly to the United States. The Government
of Peru seized 50,000 tons of interned German ships, and the Government
of Chile is negotiating with the United States for the seizure, by
appropriation or sale to this country, of 200,000 tons interned in its
ports.
* * * * *
The Second American Red Cross drive was begun on May 20. The final
subscriptions, as announced on May 28, were $148,833,367, an
oversubscription of more than $48,000,000. The subscriptions in New
York City exceeded $33,000,000; in the rest of New York State they
were about $9,000,000. The oversubscription maintained a similar
average in all parts of the country.
* * * * *
When the Germans came in possession of Helsingfors there were seven
British submarines in the Baltic with stores, workshops, and barges for
floating mechanics, which had been moved into the harbor from different
parts of the Baltic as the Germans advanced into Russia. The British
naval contingent was in charge of Lieut. Commander Downie, and when it
was apparent that the Germans would come in possession of the harbor
the entire property was destroyed, including all the submarines, repair
shops, and supplies, estimated in value at $15,000,000.
* * * * *
Andrew Bonar Law, Chancellor of the British Exchequer, in introducing
a new vote of credit in Parliament June 18, announced that it was felt
that the German offensive in France had wholly failed and that the
Austrian offensive in Italy was the war's worst initial failure. He
extolled America's aid in the war and the brilliant part taken already
by American troops. He moved a vote of credit of $2,500,000,000, which
was promptly given. The vote brought the total British war credits
to $36,500,000,000. It will cover expenditures to Sept. 1, 1918.
Bonar Law stated that the daily cost of the war to Great Britain was
$34,240,000. The debt due Great Britain from her allies was stated to
be $6,850,000,000, and from the Dominions $1,030,000,000.
* * * * *
It was announced June 16 that an American contingent had been assigned
to the Vosges Mountains in Alsace in territory which belonged to
Germany prior to the war. Private W. J. Gwyton of Evart, Mich., of this
force was the first American killed on former German soil, having met
his death by machine-gun fire on the day after the unit entered the
line, (May 27, 1918.) He was awarded the Croix de Guerre.