Norwich Bulletin Newspaper, May 17, 1918, Page 9

On a recent trip to America, Major Murphy, formerly Red Cross Commissioner for Europe, said: « “This is a war of nations, not of armies. There is " ‘not a man, woman or child in Great Britain, in Belgium, in France or in Italy that is not a factor in this war. I tell you that if you should go, as | have gone, about "those ruined districts in France and had seen little chlldren four and five years old, driving in the herds “at night; had seen little boys coming down the road— little bits of tots—with their arms full of fagots that_ they were accumulating against the winter; hau% seen old men and old women working in the fields until it was so dark that as you looked you could ]ustwg;:ake out those vague forms gathering in the crops for Fraqglce, you would realize what this war is, what this war means. _“It is not the armies of France that are the essential thing to France in this war, nor the armies of England, nor of the other countries. Those armies will do their part and do it to a finish, if they are supported by the people behind them. “The great crying need in Europe to-day is to build up the spirit and keep up the spirit of the people behind the lines, and it is that great work which the Red Cross has performed and which has’been, up to the recent entrance of our Army on a large scale, the greatest single factor of our help in France since our entry into the war.”’ The plainest dictates of huménity, as well as obligations of honor to brave allies, demanded that the American Red Cross, financed by the liberality and spirit of the American people, should do all in its power to alleviate the suffer- ings and support the morale of the soldiers and people who had been suffering so long in a strug- gle for that liberty which is the foundation stone of our American Republic. .The Canteen System’ An extraordinary canteen service is being car- ried on with the French, with thé Belgians, with the Italians, and with the British, by the Red Cross sabroad. There are rolling canteens which are operating right up in the trenches, where the soldiers get hot drinks as they go in and when they come out. These canteens are frequently operated under shell fire and gas, the Red Cross workers often working in gas masks. Before the days of Red Cross help, a French soldier would come back from the trenches on his seven days’ leave covered with vermin — officers and all — and go to a junctien point for ears to take them home. Those junction points sre equipped for 75 people, yet at times there were 4,000 people waiting, sometimes twenty- four, sometimes forty-eight hours. They slept on the ground and they got what food they could. They brought home vermin which spread dis- ease ameong the civil population behind the lines, and a discouraging atmosphere born of the con- ditions through which they passed on their way r {May. 2015, The Norwich Savings Society home. They went back to the lines through the same channels. The Red Cross has changed this. In conjunce tion with the French Government, it is now feed- ing — not giving drinks and sandwiches — but giving hot meals to a million French soldiers every month. There are great recreation halls where they sit and dine and make merry. There are big barracks with bunks along the walls, there are shower baths and disinfecting machinery, so that the men’s clothes, while they are bathing, are run through and the vermin killed. At first these French soldiers were so glad that they did not use the bunks but sat aad talked and sang and wondered at what America was doing for them. ‘A prominent French general officer recently wrote to Major Murphy: “The only thing that matters in this war is to beat the Boche, and to accomplish this the all important factor is the morale of the men. This you have done much to uphold, and the atmos- phere you create is more valuable than even you can realize. “Your work is that of maintaining the morale of the Americans and the French and the Allies, and I wish to thank you in our name and that of General Petain. Your canteens have been well run and kept up to a high standard. Let the men know that they are being cared for not as men only, but as friends; that makes them prefer your canteens to the wine shops. The morale has never been better than now. I need not tell you I feel strongly on this subject, and I am talking to you as man to man. I am speaking net only for myself but for General Petain. He feels as I do toward you and your work, and he en- dorses every word I have said.” _ Checking Tuberculosis The Red Cross is condueting a work against tuberculosis in France which is unparalleled in the history of the world. France has suffered ter- ribly from tubereulosis, brought on by so many ofberpeoplelmngmdugmlndo&uum wholesome eonditions. Tuberculosis has devel- oped in the trenches, too, and the troops are sent back carrying the germs of this dread disease. i In co-operation with the Rockefeller Founda- tion, the Red Cross is conducting a campaign of education on the care and prevention of this disease. Facilities have been provided to care for bad cases in sanatoriums, and a plan set up c which will lead to the establishment of & great system of 800 daspenunes thrcmghout Frmee, with visiting 1 nurses attached. e . Four hospitals for tubercular French soldxers : are maintained entirely by the Red Cross. At Malabray there is a 186-acre farm in tempo- rary custody of the American Red Cross, where a model village with accommodnt;ons for 400 families is being. constructed, * . The Red Cross is assisting the Freneh medical authorities in rebuilding and reorganizing other hospitals, and is aiding 98 French hospitals de- voted to tuberculosis with supplies and funds. Ambroise Rendii, Vice-President of the Paris Municipal Council, says of this work: | + “The Americans have fought the good fight against tuberculosis because they have pursued a strategic campaign against an enemy they know and rightly fear. They have taken the neces- sary measures. 'You know. them well for a prac- tical people; they will not reproach us if we say this of them in the temple of their charity. “I have seen the program of the social ac- tivities the Americans would undertake in our country in the name of the Red Cross. They have drawn up a marvelous program that takes the child from his birth and even before his birth, since the mother also is cared for, and continues the effort all along the ling of years. Such is the plan and nothing finer has ever been \ conceived.” # Other Forms of Relief Tt is difficult to give any adequate picture of the whole Red :«Cross program in France. ¥ There is the whole vast program of relief for the refugees and repatries, for those driven be- fore the invader, uprooted from their homes, and for those returned to France and Belgium broken and bent after being subject to the sway of the German for the last few years. There is the medical and surgical supply ser- vice which the Red Cross is giving to over three thousand French military hospitals, the supplies : for the most part produced by American women. ¥ There is the Red Cross children’s program of caring for needy and destitute children, the reduction of infant mortality. There is the Red Cross factory for the manufacture of artificial limbs. There is the big program of re-education for the mutilated soldier to teach him a means of self-support with its accompanying benefit to France. Work in other Countries What the Red Cross is doing for France she is doing, too, for the px:t of Belgium not held by the Germans, and to a very large degree for Italy. The story of how the American Red Cross rushed to the relief of Italy has already been told. At the time of the Italian disaster last fall, s propa- ganda was under way in Ita.ly to the effect that America was not really in the war, as we had not yet then declared war on Austria; that we were not well disposed toward Italy; that Amer- s The American Red Cross CONTRIBUTED TO THE RED CROSS BY Chelsea Savings Bank llies iuhaddonenotfingbutleadmoneyho!hlynd take back an obligation with interest.attached. There was then no official organization that could' speek, but the American Red Cross spoke, and she spoke so that the work resulted in the display; of the American flag from one end of Ihly to the other. Four days after war was declared Dy & United States against Austria, the American Red Cross Ambulance Service swung into the. Piave Line and took its place beside the brave Jtalians. The Red Cross record in Roumenia Is ond which will never be forgotten by that unhppyq people. It was only when forced frem thoeuun- try by the capacity of Germany to compel I humxh&hng peace on Roumania that the Amers| ican Red Cross left that people to its woes. : The turn of affairs in Russia seriously affeeted’ the Red Cross program in that country, but the! permanent porj:ion of the Red Cross Comh-i sion to Russia is still on hand ready to express. ‘America’s sympathy and friendliness in terms of; fnct when t!ut dlSt actod laud is remdy to reeelvo ¢ In Great Bntam the Amulca,n Red Cross s carrying on a large work, and one which is l:fiv% ing an excellent effect. The Red Cross is o ating a number of hospitals, supporting a num-‘ ber of good works in Great Britain, in co-operas! tion with the British Red Cross a.nd the BrlflSh Government. During the Fall of 1917 the American V\Eti Cross made a gift to the British Red Cross ol '§ million dollars. ‘At the time of the great German attack against the British in March, 1918, a gift of an additional million dollars was made to the British Red Cross to purchase hospital supplies, as evidence of America’s sympathy in the greag trial which Great Britain was enduring. .As so it is in Greece, in Serbia, in Palestmo. ‘wherever the rav ages of war have gone, the American Red Cross has gone helping crmies and peoples. Constructive Work’ “No other organization since the world began has ever done such great constructive work with the efficiency, the dispatch, understandmg often’ under adverse circumstances, that has been done in France by American Red Cross in the las six months.” GENERAL PERSHING. | : * * * What does General Pershing mean by eonstrue- tive work”? He means the share the Red Cross has had in reuniting scattered families, he means homeless children domiciled, bewildered refugees. collected and protected, old men and women and' babies received from behind the German lines and sent to homes and hospitals, the terrible tubercular scourge and other illnesses grappled: with. He means medical and surgical supplies,| nurses, hospitals, ambulances and dispensaries, artificial limbs and convalescent homes for the sick French soldiers. He means food, baths, « rest, recreation, comfort and cheer for the poilu on leave. He means that the American Red Cross has helped to sustain the courage, the hope and the patience of our fighting allies, of the soldiers themselves and the soldiers’ families. Through the Red Cross the armies and peoples of France and Belgium and the other Allied countries have come to realize that they have friends, and under this touch their spirits have flamed into s/ new resolution to fight on and bear all. * * * This is the fourth of a series of five annolint&s ments covering the work of the Red Cross. Red Cross Chapters have statements showing in detail how the War Fund is being expended, Ask your Chapter for these statements, + Dime Savings Bank