Norwich Bulletin Newspaper, May 15, 1918, Page 10

The Red Cross has many aspects. In one view, it is the American people’s organized and world-wide preparation against calamity. It acts in emergency, is supported by the people, is manned by those trained to fight disaster. It is supported by voluntary contributions; its oper- ations cover the whole field of human misfortune. Disaster comes unheralded; cyeclones, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, explosions, conflagrations, tor- pedoes, even battles and invasions, give little warn- ing, or none. To meet emergency, these things are necessary: organization, resources, equipment, expert knowl- edge, zeal, mobility, and speed. The American Red Cross is the main reliance of our own Government and co-operates with foreign governments and foreign societies in the work of relief everywhere. The Italian Disaster Never in its history has the American Red Cross more graphically proven its mobility and efficiency than when it went to meet and care for the half million or more refugees who were driven down from the mountains of northern Italy by the Austrian invaders in ctober of last year. The “Ttalian situation” was flashed on the world overnight. For two years the Italian {Army had been slowly making its way sgainst the Austrian. In two days all it had accomplished was undone. During those two days not only was Italy’s military progress reversed, but six hundred thousand of her women and children and old men were forced to flee before Mackensen’s force. If ever there was an emergency to be met it was when the refugees began to stream down the mountains in northern Italy. From Wash- ington there was flashed to Rome assurances of aid, backed by authority to Ambassador Page to draw on the Red Cross for immediate funds. Every consular agent was furnished with Red Cross funds to meet the emergency quickly; every Red Cross agent was set to /work. | Food and elothing for hundreds of thou- sends had to be bought. The Italian hospital service had Been wrecked by the enemy and 'had to be restored. Tramsportation service Mhhpflhdndhmesm‘e&tedfor the refugees. } Babies were being Eom and were dying by ‘the roadside. Refugees by the hundreds of thousands were hungry, athirst and ill. Here was & sitastion that called for speed above all ,else. Delay meant desth and suffering to [ % da. Yer and ¥ aftermath of misery, reached Paris hesdquariers of the Amezicap Red Cross in the middle of an October afternoon. In the face of almost insurmountable obstacles, a Red Cross train loaded with food, clothing, ether, and other supplies was made ready imme- diately. It was placed in charge of a Red Cross agent with instructions to get to Rome— no matter how, but get there. It was started, cut in two by accident, coupled together, started again, and reached Rome in just one quarter of the war-time schedule. A comprehensive Red Cross organization was quickly woven together. Red Cross sup- plies began to accumulate in needed centers. The stream of refugees flowed unabating to the South. One afternoon, on two hours’ notice, preparations were made to feed twelve thousand refugees at the Portonaccio Station. Hundreds of thousands had been dislodged from their homes. To have cared for this un- housed population would have taxed the re- sources of any country. But, in addition, Italy had to salvage its army and turn back an invasion with its remaining organized force. It was to this emergency that the Red Cross brought its mobile machinery and financial aid. In this work the American note was struck by the Red Cross — it gave assurance to Italy that in resisting invasion and getting under her heavy load of civil distress, the American people were with her. In his address at the opening of Parliament early in December, the Italian Premier, Baron Sonnino, said, “Our soul is stirred again with appreciation and admiration for the magnificent dash with which the American Red Cross has brought us powerful aid in our recent misfortune. We attribute great value to the co-operation which will be given us against the common enemy by the prbdjgious activity and by the exuberant and consistent force which are peculiar to the American people.” NORWICH BULLETIN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1918 -~ The Antilles dred and seventy Americans with but 2 few minates to leave the sinking transport, flosted, half elad, in life boats and rafts, in iy water for hours. They finally reached a port in France. Co-operating with the governmental suthorities, the Red Cross rushed to the port, fed the survivors, elothed them, hurried the worst sufferers to the hospitals, and supplied them with money to be repaid when pessible. Had the members of their own families met them ashore, these American boys could not have had more solicitous care; and the Ameri- can Red Cross, thinking always of the family as well as of the direct sufferer, cabled their condition to their families in this countrv, The Tuscania ] Fresh in the memory of all is the sinking of the Tuscania by the Germans in February. The American soldiers and sailors who sur- vived the disaster were aided in every possible way by the American Red Cross and the British Red Cross from the time they landed in Ireland. The food, the clothing, the new uniforms, the loans of money, and especially the word to the folks at home sent by the Red Cross —the story has been told many times. The Explosion at Halifax On December 6, 1917, the city was wrecked by the detonation of unnumbered tons of high explosives in the harbor. Ten million dollars’ worth of property was destroyed. A city of wounded and blinded cried for help. A member of the American Red Cross, trained in emergency relief, was on the scene when it happened. He wired Washington, and on the afternoon of the day the ‘explosion occurred, the American Red Cross perfected its emergency organization and its relief work was started. A special Red Cross train of relief supplies left New York the next day. Another Red Cross train filled with hospital supplies, to- gether with sixty doctors and sixty nurses, left Providence. A base hospital, complete in equipment and personnel, left Boston. In all, two hundred Red Cross workers and vast quan- tities of supplies soon arrived in Halifax. Ten thousand were homeless in zero weather. The combined efforts of the local authorities, the Canadian Government and the American Red Cross workers in unison soon brought adequate relief to the city. ‘America through its Red Cross had agair . given evidence to Canada that her trials are our trials and earned the gratitude of that great people beside whom we are now fighting the fight for freedom. The Guatemala Earthquake In less then three weeks after the Halifax disaster an earthquake wrecked Gustemsla City — virtually erasing it from the map. The Secretary of State, himself a member of the Central Committee of the Red Cross, cabled the American Minister st Gustemals gency R — GAA offering the services of the Ameriean Red:vn Cross, at the same time authorizing him to draw on that organization for funds Ior imme- : diate needs. %5 s 3\'; Relief moves followed with npxdlty a, steamship with Red Cross supplies sailed: from - New. Orleans at once; $121,000 worth of sup=' plmweresbxppodbytbeRedesrfromihc Canal Zone. A commission of American Red Cross exe perts in relief was dispatched and the work . of restoration has been going on u only, " skilled workers ean carry iton. . 7. i.i% 3 -8 Y 3 The Floods of Tien-Tsin,China In the fall of 1917, 12,000 square miles of territory in China were inundated, one million - people were made homeless and: property to - the value of $100,000,000 destroyed. The action taken by the Red Cross®to assist in the relief of a situation with which the Chinese - Government alone was unsble to cope gave a notable example of the manner in which the Red Cross can meet an emergency even st the other end of the warld. ' experience ‘and men even in thst far field to: Lelp cope with the disaster. The German Attack in March, 1918 When the Germans after s full winter's: { preparation launched the greatest” of alt* attacks against the British in March of this year, the British retired over a considerable area, forcing the civil population again to evacuate this stricken soil. - The papers of March 27th told the story of the Red Cross motor service in France waking ' the inhabitants in the early hours of Monday ' meorning, March 25th, transporting and feed- ing them and providing food and shelter for them in Paris. ;'-. i Again the capacity to meet the cmergeney. ) S SR - "As one looks back over the recent years there is a chain of record of how the American Red Cross rose to the occasion. The San Frmcmeo earthquake, the famine in Russia in 1908,.the Messina earthquake, the Cherry Mine disaster, the inundation of Paris in 1910, the famine in China in tbe same year, the Titanic disaster,. the Mississippi and Ohio floods in 1918, the Fastland disaster in 1915 and now the daily- record of emergency met by the Red Cross in- Roumania, Russia, Greece, Serbia, Italy, Bel.* gium, France and the United States in this greatest catastrophe of all time. The Red Cross does move quickly and effect- ively. It is America’s helping hand to the nations of the earth in their troubles. p LA B g i This is. the second of a series of £72 an- nouncemends covering the werk of the Red Red Cross Chapters have statements show- ing in detail how the War Fund is being expended. - Ask your Chapter for one of these ststements, N — . - %+ The American Red Cross CONTRIBUTED TO THE RED CROSS BY Uncas National Bank Merchants National Bank - Do e T