ted company, the "Commodity-Import, Ltd.," albeit a German company, with its headquarters in Prussian territory at Posen. At the same time public and private benevolence were coordinated, and a Polish relief committee was instituted under official auspices at Berlin. The Berliners owed something to the Poles, after all, for they were subsisting all the time on the food supplies which German organisation had diverted so competently from Poland to them. But they were not permitted to exercise their charity very long, for the Russian Army was tactless enough in the spring to do considerable damage in Memel, and the wrath of the German military authorities could not be appeased. Field-Marshal von Hindenburg counter-organised very comprehensive reprisals against the civilian population in the occupied Russian territories; and though most of these were not carried out, they did not fail altogether to bear fruit.
On the walls of Lodz and in the newspapers the following announcement appeared for several days: —
"By order of the Chief Commander all military persons are herewith forbidden to give on the occasion of Sunday collections any contributions for the poor of the town of Lodz. If military persons intend to give anything for charitable purposes from the money saved out of their pay, it is recommended that such money be deposited with the local army command of Lodz, 30 that it may be used for the support of those of their German fellow-countrymen who have suffered at Memel and its surroundings from the brutal cruelty of the Russians.
Ladies and gentlemen collecting must not in future solicit contributions from German officers or soldiers.
Lodz, March 22nd, 1915.
Imperial German President of Police,
