New Britain Herald Newspaper, May 31, 1915, Page 10

Ador and Red Cross k. 2~—Great group of by workers for the prison- _mgency massed on steps useum. 3.—Committee i ‘sxchange of the .m eeping trac iand children adrift from bat- B.~Handling correspond- r captives. 6—Answer- after the ng. 7.~ o 150 typ who fill out cards, 3 JEEN'the tear stained pages of the story of these ter- rible days in Europe are read in the days to come passages will be found gloriously and heroically m. Beside the angel repre- i¥he quiick unstinted generosity iea, will Jstand the.angel of resenting’ Switzerlan ‘war started the Swiss “mobilizing its valiant 50,000 men to protect the . neutrality, made ‘the re- r to the belligerents of ' of Switzerland as a neutral r the wounded of all the war- +When that magnanimous b ngcnptpd and prison- to. be'numerous the '8 new way to help alle- 8. i‘fry._ Enshrouding Youn ‘Grand Duchess Marie Adelaide of Luxemburg and views in the capital of the little country she rules. DLY the most ardent fancy They founded at Geneva, the home of the Red Cross, the International Agency For Prisoners of War, It was a Gene- vese citizen, Edouard Audeoud, who suggested the idea that the Swiss fed- eral council should ask the belligerent tions to .exchange their civil war prisoners, women and children and males under fifteen and over sixty years of age, through Switzerland. That proposal was accepted and thousands of such prisoners have been exchanged as the result. ¥ 5 But since then the movement has so grown that now it covers four other great -branches of work—exchange of maimed captives, search for the miss- ing soldiers and civillans alike, agent for prisoners and intermediary for anx- lous relatives and friends, and .bene- Since the memorable day when the uld conjure up a romance | war opened and alone, except for one {more picturesque and re- of Wer ministers, she tried to order the ble than that of Marie | kaiser's'army back, the veil of mystery «and beautitul has covered Europe's youngest. and ‘|amallest queen, No war correspondent g Queen Baifles All factor to the expelled. Of all five branches Gustave Ador, president of the International Red Cross society, who 1is at the head of the noble work, declares, thgt the last'is proving the most pathetic, though all is heartrend- ing. So atupendous has the ‘work ‘grown it is difficuit to convey an adequate idea of it. It started on Aug. 21 in Mr. Ador’s home, but outgrew that in a few days and was moved to the Palais Eynard. By Oct. 12 it moved to the Rath museum, the main galleries of which were cleared out for it. Soon it occupied the entire building, and now it has had to rent other buildings near by. At the beginning of the year. there were 800 voluntary workers, now there are 1,400 volunteers, men and women, 200 or 300 paid ones as well,'and the work never stops. More than 150 type- writers are going night and day. Down to April 15 the number of tele- grams received and answered was more than 35,000. The letters of inquiry re- celved numbered more than 1,800,000, and most of them contained from fifty to a hundred questions, upon each of which hung the happiness, maybe the sanity,. of, some one. The number of letters or printed forms sent out in re- ply reached the enormous total of 3,919,000, The parcels received by post and forwarded to captived totaled in number no fewer than 1,571,000. The money forwarded to prisoners from friends, who did not know where they where and had no other means of tory of Europe has no counterpart to the situation of this young girl, who a year ago was worshiped by her people .|as the “bright star” of Luxemburg., Months prior to the war her be- trothal‘to Prince Henry of Bavaria de- lighted the pontifical court at Rome, since hoth the royalties are fervently Roman Catholic and Luxemburg has been ravaged by anti-clericalism. Now what has happened to this romance? The last that was heard of Duchess Marle was a story cabled from Geneva shortly after the kaiser’s birthday. It id that on that day Emperor Willlam sent one of his generals to her with an invitation to visit him and share in the birthday celebration. According to the cabled story, Marie Adelaide sent her kind wishes to the kalser, but refused. to leave her palace. So strong is the veil of secrecy that now enshrouds the royal castle none knows whether or not the duchess has carried out the wedding which had been arranged. Marie has a will of her own and may have married despite the terrors of the war and her voluntary imprisonment on her royal domain. But, if so, what has become of the Bayvarian consort, if, in truth, he is consort at all? This is equally a part of the mystery. Prince Henry, it is thought, s fighting with one of the kaiser’s armies. But even that much is not known. This situation has inspired all sorts of inconceivably fantastic rumors, .One of these is that the grand duchess, who is twenty years old, 1s to become the bride of Prince Joachim, the kalser's youngest son. Secret marriage, compulsory divorce, solemn betrothal and partings in grief and tears all ‘have their place in the stories being told in this the most sen- timental complication provoked by the war. If anything is known at Rome the Vatican is guarding its secret well, No one has been able to learn anything one way or another, To add to all this, Aistory affords as ‘| background the glamour of a past, for from the grand duchy of Luxemburg came Godfrey de Boulllon, leader of vallant crusaders and founder of the kingdom of Jerysalem; the good, blind King John of Bohemia and Maria Theresa, who, through splendid mag- netism and courage, won to her failing cause the knights of Hungary. Marie also is of the blood of Willlam III, one of the best kings England ever had. The father of Grand Duchess Marie )| Adelaide was Willlam Alexander, last has been able to penetrate it. Many have tried; all have falled. So profound is-the mystery involving the destiny of the grand duchess that whether today she be maid, wife or widow none can tell. The modern his- .| prince of ‘the house of Nassau, which gave its great stadholder to Holland and to England William of Orange. ‘Her mother, the dowager Grand Duchess Marie Anne, was born a Portugal prin- cess of the family of Braganza, related to half the ruling houses of Kurope at war or likely to bes ey o reaching amounted to nearly $300,000. The simplest part of the work is the exchange of the maimed captives, “les grands blesses,” as they are called in the records at Geneva. Hardest in its detail work is the search for the missing, the co-ordina- tion of the lists of the dead and wound- ed. Inquiries are pouring into Geneva from all over the world. The name of every missing man in- quired after is written out on a white card with all the details given and the name and address of the inquirer. It can. easily be imagined what a task this ‘is. With all the belligerents the agency has arranged to be furnished regularly with all lists of casualties. Every name them, - o “‘::_*"' is copled off on to a card of a particu- lar color. These cards are then col- lated with the white ones and the friends are notified. Filed away, of the French, British, Belgians and Germans alone, are no fewer than 1,240,000 white cards. Severe while it: was on was the ex- change of the clvilian prisoners, old men, women and children who had been interned. Day after day they came by the train load from Germany and France. To prevent unpleasant clashes thé different nationalities had to be kept apart. The French were sent to one part of the city, the Germans to another, and they crossed the city by different routes. Many were the heartrending cases. All were frightened, broken in spirit. Few had more fn the world than they carried. The, sufferings of intern~ ment were wrjtten on @ , and all had acquired & Habif pf pbedience which was painful to the 8 ‘Weary: and sick mothers struggled under the burden of whimpering bables. Some had been so many years in Gers many or France their native land and tongue were foreign to them; they were, torn from their homes and were going. to strangers, going God un.lvhm.; where. Some cases were even 'y for there were young French who had marrfed Germans in and German girls who had Frenchmen in Germany and were driven out of their own coumtry the land of thelr country’s foes their husbands were detained as ene- mies. y But hardest of all is the burden which has just begun to fall upon the Swiss. This is the effort to help the French and Belgians from the terri- - tory occupled by the Germans, the old men, women and chlldren, who, now that food is becoming scarce, are 3 sent away from their home land. At the rate of a train load, 400 or 500 & de; they are taken through Germany and landed over the frontier of Switzerland. . The Swiss have to convey them to the French frontier. Mr. Ador has received the thanks b ;:n‘PODO for the work the Swiss i Nation Keeps Green the Memory of Its Heroes Photos by American Press Assoclation, Above—Vete ns with their drum and fife band parading in memory of their dead comrades. ' Below.—Two veterans going over the roll of honor. Y the flow of the inland river, Whence the fleets of iron have fled, Where the blades of the grave grass quiver, 3 Asleep on the ranks of the dead— i Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment day; Under the one the blue, Under the other the aray, ; These in the robings of glory, Those in the gloom of defeat, All with the battle blood gory, In the dusk of eternity meet— Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment day; Under the laurel the blue, Under the willow the_gray, From the silence of sorrowful hours ' The desclate mourners go, Lovingly laden with flowers, Alike for the friend and the fu—_ Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment ‘day; Under the roses the blyey Under the lilies the gray, 8o with an equal splendor The morning sun rays fall With a touch impartially tender On the blossoms blooming for allw Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment day; Broidered with gold the blue, Mellowed with gold the gray. 8o when the summer calleth On forest and field of grain With an equal murmur falleth The cooling drip of the rain— Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment dayy ' Wet with the rain the blue, Wet with the rain the gray, Sadly, but not with upbraiding, The generous deed was dons. In the storm of the years that are ing No braver battle was wor Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment day; Under the blossoms the biue, Under the garlands the gray. jogts No more shall the warcry sever Or the winding rivers be red. ‘They banish our anger forever | ’ When they laurel the graves of dead— Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment day; Love and fears for the blus, Tears and love for the gray. —=Francia M. Fit y