Six thousand meals a day were served in Brussels alone in the autumn. In some places one large baker's bun a day was all that was issued by the authorities; in other places, one bowl of cabbage soup. By April there were forty-seven soup kitchens in Brussels. A shipload of food meant one day's rations for the Belgians. When the first ship arrived at the Hook of Holland, the city of Rotterdam rejoiced. While the unpacking went on, speeches were made and banquets held, and American national airs were played. The cargo of the ship was put into canal barges, which by German permission were allowed to make their way to the different towns. To show how quickly the food is distributed--in three hours sixty thousand people received bread. Three hundred and sixty sacks of American flour arriving at Verviers was distributed in the form of bread the following morning. According to the system of the Commission, each person receives three cards. "One is kept at the office, the other two are given to the applicant. One of these he keeps and presents each day for his quota of rations, i. e., bread. The other he gives to his baker. With this card the baker makes application to the storehouse for the necessary flour to cover the demand of the bread card. The bread card calls for 325 grams of bread; the baker's card for 250 grams of flour. When there are not full rations to be had, the applicant gets the percentage available. This applies to every one, rich and poor alike." Thanks to the efficient work of the Commission, fully seventy-five per cent. of the Belgians receiving food were able to pay for it. This was due to the clever financiering of Mr. Hoover and his committee, who managed, by an ingenious method, to raise the depreciated paper currency to par value. Putting gift and purchase cargoes together there were delivered in a single month, "twenty-five thousand tons of wheat, thirty thousand tons of flour, eleven thousand tons of maize, fifteen hundred tons of rice, five hundred and forty-six tons of peas, four thousand tons of beans, one hundred and seven tons of potatoes, one hundred and twelve tons of salt, with thirty-six hundred tons of sundries." In the spring Antwerp and Brussels were feeding about two hundred and eighty thousand people twice a day. At least four million people are getting their food through the National Commission. Those who can pay for it do so. Food is given in the bread line to those who cannot pay. At first only workmen appeared in the line, then small shopkeepers, and later professional men.