Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 214, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1919 — BELGIUM SPEEDING UP [ARTICLE]

BELGIUM SPEEDING UP

Making Rapid Strides in Work of Reconstruction. Program WiTT Be Completed Successfully, According to Henry H. Morgan. Brussels. —Henry H. Morgan, American high trade commissioner in Belgium, has established a commercial organization here •to aid in the reconstruction of Belgian industries. He announces that this organization is at the disposal of all merchants and manufacturers in Belgium and America. To a press correspondent Mr. Morgan said that, in view of what the Belgians already have accomplished, he did not feel discouraged over Industrial conditions in this country. “On the contrary,” he said, “I feel certain that they will carry their reconstruction program through to a successful conclusion. I notice an intense cultivation of the soil, which will result in the next crop being nearly equal to prewar crops.

“Virtually all tha.glhss factories in the country now are in operation, and 30 per cent of the looms now are busy spinning raw cotton arriving from the United States. “It is estimated that the loan of 500,000,000 francs which American bankers have agreed to extend to Belgium will go a long way toward reconstruction. It also will have a beneficial effect upon the purchase price of the franc, which at the present time is very low. Repayment of this loan IS not to commence until 1930. It is only by rapidly building her mills that Belgium can hope to pay back this loan in the production of her manufactured goods.” Mr. Morgan said it was estimated that the Germans had carried away one-third of the Belgian live stock. Experts of the United States department of agriculture have arrived from America to aid the Belgian ministry of agriculture in shipping breeding stock to Belgium. “It is my understanding,” added Mr. Morgan,, “that preparations now are under way for sending a fleet of 30 vessels, each carrying live stock.” *