Class J3 G % 1 finpyrighf F J> fl k? y CGEXRIGHI DEPOSIT. - HELPING FRANCE BY THE SAME AUTHOR A Village in Picardy With 20 illustrations from Poulbot's DES GOSSES ET DES BONHOMMES Colored Wrapper $1.50 net Treasure Flower With 12 full page illustrations, 4 in colors $1.50 net The Village Shield (in collaboration with GEORGIA WILLIS READ) With 12 full page illustrations, 4 in colors Colored Wrapper $1.50 net E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY / M. UPJOHN REFUGEE FROM HAZEBROUCK AGED 92 HELPING FRANCE The Red Cross in the Devastated Area BY RUTH GAINES if Aothob op "A Village in Picabdt," etc. NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 681 Fifth Avenue Pr\r>\/ O ■v$k e,°<1 COPTBIGHT, 1919, BT E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America JUL 18 1919 ©CI.A.529253 S PREFACE A FRENCH newspaper correspondent was conducted one day through the Paris offices of the American Red Cross. He was vastly and courteously impressed both by what he saw and by his guide. "But," he writes, "I cannot name to you the person who showed me about because he was an officer, and I suppose that in America as in France the uniform fosters and expresses the wish for a loss of identity." It was charmingly put, delicately imagined. Best of all, it is true. Our American Red Cross in France, ac- cused by some of aggressiveness, practicality and all the pushing faults of our young democ- racy, has nevertheless the innate shyness of its youth and of its singleness of purpose. All its hope is that it may have helped to alleviate suffering and advance the hour of victory. vi Preface For this reason, no names of Red Cross workers will be found in the pages of this book. They have acted merely as the repre- sentatives of our Red Cross in France and are by their own request anonymous. The author regrets only that thanks can not be given where due to the many colleagues — and many of them in inconspicuous positions — whose help has made this record possible. The Author. Paris, February, 1919. NOTE ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS IT has been the aim of the soldier-artists of France to publish to all the world the desecration of her ancient monuments and cherished soil. To this fact we owe the re- markable series of woodcuts, etchings and paintings of her ruins, from which we have drawn freely for this record. Here, as in every manifestation of life, the French have found beauty also. As M. Georges d'Esparbes writes in the preface to that rare album, "Noyon, Guiscard, Ham," by M. Armand Gueritte, "When I had under my eyes the aquafortes which M. Gueritte has portrayed of his countryside in the in- vaded territory, a great pity pierced me before that aspect of the motherland, of which these drawings showed me the wounds. I did not see beyond that: my country destroyed. . . . vii viii Note on the Illustrations If this work is so lovely, it is because we divine that its purpose is, above all, to be of use, and that purpose renders it again lovelier; because its reason for being is perhaps the highest reason of art." The same purpose, from a constructive point of view, has animated French architects. Plans for French reconstruction have kept pace with German destruction. Hence we have series such as that of M. Georges Wybo, from which, by permission, we have drawn our chapter headings: "Reflexions et Croquis sur 1' Architecture au Pays de France." "In order to protect a patrimony which is dear to us," M. Wybo has drawn these examples of typical regional architecture. They will serve as an inspiration in rebuilding the ruins. When our soldiers pass through the rural districts of France, they may see in the village halls, if they will, posters of welcome bearing the legends: "Peasants of France, salute the soldiers of free America who come by the mil- lions to mingle their blood with that of our Note on the Illustrations ix sons, to preserve us in the right to cultivate our fields, and to prevent the barbarians from depriving us of our hard-won liberties," or "The Heart of America. In the interior, as with the armies, no suffering is a matter of in- difference to the American Red Cross." Conversely, American artists, such as Miss A. M. Upjohn, have made their contribution to France. The fidelity, the sympathy of her portraits are those not alone of the artist, but of the relief worker who has lived among and loved the peasants of devastated France. CHAPTER PAGE 1 II. To Win the War . 21 III. The Field op Opportunity . 29 IV. The Plan: Organization . . 39 V. The Plan: Administration . 52 VI. The Plan: Cooperation . . 60 VII. Cooperation in Practice . . 72 91 IX. "Polishing the Tarnished Mirror s" . 108 X. Behind the British Lines . 121 132 XII. Our Presence With Them . 145 XIII. The Road to Verdun . 156 XIV. The Prefect op the Frontier . 175 XV. The Flags of Victory . 191 213 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Frontispiece Upjohn Refugee from Hazebrouck, aged 92 A. M In Front of the Church at Saint-Cernin * Georges Wybo A Poor Village of France Old Fortifications at Antibes * . A War Orphan of Brittany . Noyon, in April 1917* A House in Noyon . Jean Perrier . Georges Wybo . A. M. Upjohn Georges Wybo Armand Gueritte Notre Dame, From St. Julien-le-Pauvre * Georges Wybo Bridge at Tours * . The Son of a Soldier, Paris . Public Fountain at Noyon * . Ruins of Contalmaison, Somme Municipal Offices at Urrugne * The Chateau, Ham A Street in Guiscard Onvillers Church, Santerre * Georges Wybo Georges Wybo A. M. Upjohn Georges Wybo Paul Mansard Georges Wybo 1 9 21 23 29 37 39 52 55 60 69 72 Laon Cathedral * Armand Gueritte 87 91 Georges Wybo 108 * Reflexions et Croquis sur V Architecture au Pays de France: Georges Wybo. Bachette et Cie., Paris. xiii xiv Illustrations PAQH The Mill on the Somme, Ham] . _ . . f Armand Gueritte 111 A Street in Ham . . .J House on the Luce Plateau (near Amiens) * Georges Wtbo 121 Lowland Farm (near Soissons) * Georges Wybo 132 Street in Fontenoy * . . Georges Wybo 145 Born in Flight from Lens, 1914 . A. M. Upjohn 147 Village Hall at Fismes * . . Georges Wybo 156 Market at Montrejeau * (Comminges) Georges Wybo 175 Church of Flirey, Meurthe-Moselle Lucy Garnot 179 Saint-Cyr (near Dourdan) * . Georges Wybo 191 Telegraph Corps Putting up Wires, Noyon Armand Gueritte 195 Map 214 * inflexions et Croquis sur V Architecture o« Pays de France: Georges Wybo. Eachette et Cie., Parte. HELPING FRANCE In Front of the Church at Saint-Cernin. Reflexions et Croquis sur V Architecture au Pays de France: Georgea Wybo. Hachette et Cie., Paris. HELPING FRANCE CHAPTER I HOME SERVICE IF there is one division above all others of the American Red Cross activities for the soldier which the American Expeditionary Force in France holds dear, it is, I venture to state, that of the Bureau of Home Service. Many a soldier is anxious over wife or sweet- heart, or aged parents, left, too often, without 2 Helping France adequate means of support, or unheard from, it may be for months. The Home Service bridges the thousands of miles of silence, and relieves suspense with aid, or best of all, with information. Infinite pains are taken in this service; millions of dollars spent. To what end? Primarily that the American soldier, freed of anxiety, may be a more efficient pawn in the great game of war. It is also, I venture to state, in its role of home service, that is, of service to the sol- dier's family, that the American Red Cross has made its most valuable contribution to the French Army as well, and to the French nation during the war. For it is in terms of home service that the activities of the Depart- ment of Civilian Relief of the American Red Cross in France can best be interpreted to America. It is according to the moral even more than to the material evaluation of this service that the millions of Red Cross mem- bers, who have by their sacrifices and their contributions made it possible, should take "Home Service" 3 stock of their contribution to the Great War. Picture to yourself the mental state of a French soldier mobilized hastily in 1914 in the northern regions of France, so soon over- run and so tenaciously held by the enemy. Multiply him by thousands. Send him through the campaigns of the Marne, of the bitterly contested Chemin des Dames, of the defense of Verdun, if you will, and bring him thus to the little hamlet whence he started. What will he find? What did he find? I quote from an eye witness,* whose company was just going into repose after twenty-two days in the front line trenches, twenty-two days in the "hell of Verdun." They saw, along the road, "a modest house, which had been disemboweled by an exploding shell. Its steps were half demolished, its blinds hung crazily; the gaping windows showed the emp- tiness of the interior. 'My house,' cried a man suddenly, and darted in. It was not * Raymond Joubert: Verdun. 4 Helping France difficult to do, since the wicket of the little garden, held in place by only one hinge, flapped to and fro in the wind. "The man, when we saw him again," con- tinued the narrator, "was all agog, his arms waving, his body convulsed with hilarious surprise. Everything was reduced to dust in his house, and methodically and minutely destroyed. He had good cause to laugh! He would never have believed his misfortune so complete." And what of his family, his wife, his chil- dren, his parents? In every case, one of two things had happened. They had either re- mained to be taken prisoners by the Germans, or they had fled before them, fugitives. All degrees of misery are comprised in these two classifications. They make the subject mat- ter of two main divisions of our Red Cross civilian relief; that of rehabilitation, acting in the devastated area, and that of refugees, following the families in their dispersion into every department of France. Yet there can "Home Service" 5 be no hard and fast distinction; for civilian prisoners, sent into slavery in Germany and later shipped back by the thousands daily, became refugees; and there were thousands more, refugees from destroyed villages, gath- ered into the larger as yet undestroyed centers in the devastated territory itself. In short, the story of rehabilitation in the devastated area, which is all the present volume pre- tends to, is the story in epitome, of all Red Cross home service in France. Civilian prisoners! America has heard of them, and shuddered at the revival by Ger- many of the methods of pre-Christian war- fare, in this twentieth century. "You have sat at the funeral of dear sons," cried a mem- ber of the Belgian Relief Commission work- ing on the German side of the lines, "But you have never sat at the funeral of a city."* And he goes on to describe in poignant terms the first levy of the citizens of Mons. All the night, after the deportation, he walked the * John H. Gade: National Geographic Magazine. 6 Helping France streets of that stricken city, unable to sleep, equally unable to escape from the shrieks of the bereaved. Mons, Valenciennes, Lille and a score of others — their sorrows were the same. Counting the last and most infamous de- portation of fourteen thousand young lads and graybeards just before the armistice, there were forty thousand old men and women, young men and maidens carried into slavery from Lille alone. "I saw," says an eye witness of this last atrocity, "I saw, in August, 1914, our valorous regiments set forth for the war. I saw, in October, 1918, the interminable columns of civilians set forth into exile, and I remarked in the latter, at the end of four years of weakening occupa- tion, as in the former, on the threshold of glory, the same bearing, the same faith, the same valiance, the same anxiety to do honor to France, and to proclaim on high its heroism and its mighty vitality."* The words of the Old Testament recur like a dirge: "How * Pierre Bosc : Les Allemands k Lille. "Home Service" 7 doth the city sit solitary that was full of people, how is she become a widow that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tribu- tary!" Lille was a great manufacturing city, form- ing with Roubaix and Turcoing, her neighbors and companions in misfortune, the pre-war triumvirate of textile industries in France. Arras, Cambrai, Lille, famous in our ears to-day as landmarks in the flux of battles, were formerly famous for the productions to which they gave their names, arras, cambric, and lisle. "Even the Sultan knew well the tapestries of Arras,"* in the fourteenth cen- tury. Yet it is not in the destroyed cities, not even in Soissons or Reims, rich in historic associa- tions — though these are referred to as "mur- dered" — that the heart of France is cen- tered. The cities of the Northern provinces grew up out of the small industries of the vil- * Albert Demangeon: La Picardie. 8 Helping France lages. Lille, Arras, Amiens, all took the produce of the country, the flax, the wool of the flocks, even the lucid waters of the Somme, as the raw material of their wealth. To a larger extent than most manufacturing cen- ters, they depend still for their hands — or did before the war — on the winter leisure of the farmers. North, south, east, west, wherever you go in France, it is the land that is the source of individual, of national wealth. The land and the people, they are inex- tricably bound together. Books are written explaining the character of the peasant (pay- san) by the character of the locality (pays) which has bred him, and his fathers and grandfathers before him. The texture of the soil, the nature of the crop, have determined the routine of his life, the style of his building, the temper of his soul. Two-thirds to nine- tenths of the farmlands in the invaded de- partments are owned by the farmers them- selves. Of these, the small farmers or peas- Wmn ^mjrw^0™ m * tiS fism mUf^l SB wit Hi|lra ■KSSa ISfHi??^ rvii'i^ W^j^^S^''-j'/^M A Poor Village of France. L'n Pauvre Village de France: Rene Benjamin. Woodcuts by Jean Perrier. G. Weil & Co., Paris. "Home Service" 9 ants make up the bulk, "each family having its house, its land, and passing on to the chil- dren its home, its traditions, its agricultural implements . " * The family, the home (foyer) , the locality (pays), the land; these are the cumulative passions which blend and fire the patriotism of France. You will hear not so often "beautiful France," as the "beau- tiful land of France." You will hear one Frenchman ask another "Of what pays are you?" In the Marseillaise itself — though not alas! in the English translation — the soldier fights to rid the furrows of the hated in- vader. The invaded region, despoiled, pro- faned, is "notre grande blessee, la terre de France." The very apple trees, girdled and dying, have a personality; the villages are "assassinated;" the windowless houses are "blind." This love of the land, one finds it in France the basis not only of defense but of reconstruc- tion. Mme. Moreau, President of the Vil- * Albert Demangeon: La Picardie. io Helping France lages Liber6s, notable among the associations for reconstruction formed by French women, says in addressing her colleagues: "In this task we, women of the frontier, have the part Providence has given us. This work is woven with our lives and mingles itself with our mem- ories, our affections, with the heavy respon- sibilities of our situation. It is not ours to assume it or not to assume it. It imposes itself. Who then will raise again the family home, restore our fields, our vines, replant for our little children the woods which our grandfathers have planted, if it is not we? The names of villages and the corners of farms, which in the Communique's are only names, we have known since our infancy every stone and every spring of them — and all that we love there is gone. Whether we belong to the Marches of Lorraine with my compatriot, the blessed Joan of Arc, to the Nord, to the country of Soissons, to the Marne, or to the Ardennes, we have the honor to be of the chosen land, the land of the front, and I say "Home Service" n it proudly, we, we, too, belong to the Twen- tieth Corps."* Again, listen to the plea of the Justice of the Peace of Combles, sent in 1917 to the American Red Cross. "Ladies and Gentle- men of Free America" he begins, "I have the honor to call to your attention one of the most unfortunate regions of France, devastated and destroyed by more than two years of war — the village of Combles, chief town of a Canton composed of twenty-one communes in the department of the Somme. ... If a journey is made at the present time through these regions, so alive and so fertile before the war, but now so desolate, nothing is to be seen but a vast chalky plain, quite white and everywhere reduced to powder. The ground which had a fertile soil of one meter in depth, has been completely turned up and the shells and the machine guns have brought to the surface the subsoil of pebbly chalk. This soil, which is now mixed with all sorts of rub- * Report. 12 Helping France bish and scraps of shells, will take more than fifty years to recover its fertility. "Shall I relate to you, ladies and gentle- men, the sufferings, the endurance, the cour- age and heroism displayed by the unfortu- nate inhabitants of Combles and of the com- munes of Hardecourt-aux-Bois, Guillemont, Ginchy, Maurepas, and later of Morval, Rancourt, Sailly-Sallisel (the first-mentioned places situated on the Front opposite the Anglo-French positions established at Mari- court), the courage displayed in the face of such misfortunes and destruction and in the midst of vexations and violence of all sorts to which they were subjected? "Maricourt! a village ever to be remember- ed, which a very ancient tradition speaks of as consecrated to the Virgin, curtis Marice (Vil- lage of Marie). This village has, in fact, never been trodden under foot by the invad- ing hordes, neither in 1870 nor in the present war! "When the Bavarians and other Germans "Home Service" 13 boasted that by means of renewed attacks they would succeed in taking the village, the women of Combles replied proudly : * You will not take Maricourt, not even a brick of it!' and the village and its trenches stood out against all the attacks of the Germans in 1914, 1915, 1916! Its defenders were intrepid and the place remained impregnable. "William II and the Crown Prince them- selves came to Combles, accompanied by Staff Officers of their allies, and pointed out to the latter the difficulty of taking the position. "Numerous Bavarian regiments were used up in their fruitless attempts, renewed from month to month for more than two years, to take this village. The discouraged men re- maining from these regiments were sent to other fronts. They were replaced by Prus- sian regiments who, more obstinate or better trained, wished to excel the Bavarians, but they in their turn were destroyed. Thou- sands of them lay in front of the Anglo-French trenches at Maricourt. 14 Helping France "During these alternate attacks and regular battles in which the villages of Guillemont, Ginchy, Maurepas, Hardecourt were under fire from the heavy guns, the population of Combles, continuously on the qui vive, was a prey to every kind of anguish. "Many a time we hoped to see our victo- rious soldiers reach our town. We heard the French drums sounding the charge, we heard the reply of their artillery and their heavy fire, then the heavy guns hidden in the woods above Combles hurled their shells at our regi- ments which, in their eagerness, had drawn too close. Too frequently, in the middle of the night, when the troops had broken through the enemy and were rapidly advancing on Combles, violent storms occurred followed by torrential rain which soaked the hills and the valleys, and stopped dead the advance of our men who could thus no longer be seconded by their artillery. Then silence and darkness would reign again. For us, the hope of deliv- erance was once more lost, and we were happy "Home Service" 15 if on the following morning we did not see the arrival of twenty or thirty French or Eng- lish soldiers, harassed and with torn uniforms covered with blood and mud and escorted by Boche soldiers who led them away, prisoners, down the High street of Combles. "These unfortunate prisoners were abso- lutely forbidden to speak to us, but we said a sympathetic word to them in a low voice. The greater part of them did not look dejected or discouraged, but rather indignant at hav- ing to submit to such captivity, and a gleam of courage and hope was still to be seen in their eyes, like heroes whom Fortune had be- trayed! "Over the six kilometres which separated Maricourt and Hardecourt from Combles the same tragedies were frequently renewed during the darkest nights, when the Germans opened furious attacks to surprise first the advance posts and then the trenches of Mari- court. What struggles, what hecatombs by thousands! According to German officers, i6 Helping France there were heaps of corpses of soldiers and horses to the height of a man between the fronts of the two armies. More than thirty thousand of their soldiers were thrown pele- mele and buried in the quarries between Hardecourt-aux-Bois and Maricourt. Their wounded were continually passing through to the hospitals established at Combles. The tombs of soldiers and officers increased the size of the cemetery threefold. The bodies of superior officers were transported from Combles to Peronne, to be sent to their fam- ilies in Germany. "Our heroes, who have died for their coun- try, and for the emancipation and liberty of nations, also sleep by thousands at Harde- court and Carnoy, where the struggle was so obstinate, and on all this part of the banks of the Somme, which they have bathed with their blood, where they have left their bones, to arrest the vandals of Germany ! "But the day of our departure and of our "Home Service" 17 forced evacuation, was also the prelude to the destruction of Combles ! "On the 28th of June, 1916, after a bom- bardment which raged for five days and five nights, the inhabitants were obliged to leave their unfortunate town, abandoning to the cupidity of the enemy everything which we had been able during the previous two years to retain in our dwellings — everything we pos- sessed in the way of furniture, bedding, cloth- ing, silver, books, pictures, family heirlooms — in fact everything that was precious remain- ing to us. It was only on the follow- ing 25th of September that Combles was finally occupied by the Anglo-French troops who took possession of it after terrible strug- gles. "Fifteen hundred wounded Germans were found in the vast subterranean quarters twenty meters in depth, the entrance to which was situated in the center of the town, and more than six hundred prisoners were at the same time captured in the borough which 1 8 Helping France had been surrounded on all sides by the Allied troops. "The Germans retired to the north towards Sailly-Sallisel and continued the bombard- ment of what remained of Combles, in order to hinder the advance of the Anglo-French armies. " The town being thus successively under the fire and crushed by the shells of both armies, was converted into a mass of ruins, to such an extent that it would be difficult to recog- nize the sites of its principal houses, its public monuments, the church — several centuries old — the town hall, schools, squares, and old streets. "For more than two years, either at Com- bles or in the northern region to which we were evacuated, and where we were still under the German domination, I have personally en- countered the same dangers, endured the same sufferings, and the most trying vexations after having lost practically all that I pos- sessed and seen my family dispersed, two of "Home Service" 19 my children having been wounded and the third being at present on the battle front. "I appeal therefore, Ladies and Gentle- men, for your generous intervention in favor of our town of Combles and its communes which, by their long martyrdom and their courage, have well deserved universal sym- pathy. "You will thus contribute, Ladies and Gentlemen of Free America, of the Great Sis- ter Republic, to the renewal of our valiant rural population and to the re-establishment of Our France, with whom you are entering into the struggle for the triumph of justice, of the liberty of nations and of the future of humanity." Alas! the commune of Combles, even the impregnable "Village of Mary" fell to the invaders in the spring of 1918. But its appeal is typical of the touching confidence of France in her sister ally. In answering the spirit of such an appeal, America has builded even better than she knew. She has asked, 20 Helping France through her Red Cross, to be admitted into the very heart of France, into that place doubly sacred in France from the intrusions of strangers — the home. And she has been doubly welcomed. In the words of Mme. Eduard Fuster, who has given invaluable service in guiding the policies of the American Red Cross: "You have come here not only to help us win the war, but to share with us all our burdens, all our sufferings; those of the front and those of the trenches, and those also behind the lines. . . . All the victims of war have laid their problems before you, all our sorrows have found an echo in your hearts." Old Fortifications at Antibes. Reflexions et Croquis sur I' Architecture au Pays de France: Georges Wyoo, Hachette et Cie., Paris. CHAPTER II TO WIN THE WAR THE American Red Cross is, like the present American Army, young. Al- though the Geneva Convention, called in 1863, was signed by fourteen nations in 1864, Amer- ica did not sign it until 1882, and it was only in 1905 that the volunteer organization styled the American Red Cross was established by 21 22 Helping France Act of Congress as the official relief organiza- tion of the United States. Its purpose as then defined is: "To continue and carry out a system of national and international relief in time of peace and to apply the same in mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods and other great national calamities and to devise and carry on measures for preventing the same." But the Red Cross is not so young as the American Army in its intervention in France. Prior to our entering the war, it had already its representative in the field in the form of the American Relief Clearing House, through which contributions in money and in supplies were shipped and distributed for two years. The American public was already familiar with pleas on its behalf, such as that made by President Wilson in January, 1917: "Another winter closes around the great European struggle, and with the cold, there comes greater need among soldiers in the fighting line, and in the hospitals, and still more A War Orphan of Brittany. To Win the War 23 among the women and children in ruined homes or in exile." Yet it remained for the declaration of war to develop the astounding resources which the conscience and the imagination of the American people placed at the disposal of the Red Cross. The preparation of the Army was not more swift nor more far sighted than that of its service of mercy. A war council of seven members, created May 10, 1917, placed the organization on a war basis. The Chairman of that Council brought to it a name renowned in the business world. The cam- paign drives of the Red Cross, resulting in the collecting of $350,000,000, attest not only the generosity, but the confidence of the nation in the integrity and sagacity of the adminis- tration of those funds. The membership of the organization leapt into the millions; the American Red Cross became what the French were quick to call it — the expression of the heart of America toward France. For it was not to our own army, but to the 24 Helping France needs of our Allies, particularly of France, that the initial service of our Red Cross was ded- icated. To us, in America, it seemed the logical, the tangible thing to do, to send the Red Cross personnel as an advance guard, an earnest of the army that was to follow. The civilian activities of the Red Cross at home, the contributions, already large, which we had made to the relief of Belgium and of France through other agencies, had accus- tomed us to look upon civilian relief in a foreign country as natural. Not so was our advent regarded by Europe. France welcomed us, but as something new, unheard of. Her response was enthusiastic in proportion to her wonder. Other allies had given of their treasure, and we must never forget, more largely than we, to the same cause; they had given what we had not yet had the opportunity to do, their millions of lives. But America brought for the first time in the history of the Red Cross, a war service in aid of civilians as well as of soldiers, — I To Win the War 25 would say, for the first time in the history of nations. Private societies, such as the Eng- lish Quakers as far back as the Franco- Prussian War of 1871, rendered a similar ser- vice to France; in France, on the advent of the Red Cross, they and many other foreign- born organizations were already engaged in civilian relief. The significance of the entry of the American Red Cross lay in the fact that it represented not a private agency, but the American Government. The President of the United States, as its president as well, spoke through it to the people of France. "Wher- ever these Red Cross men and women go," he said, "they are carrying the message that Americans cannot rest without seeking to relieve such suffering." The spirit with which they went to that service is equally illus- trated in the charge given by the Chairman of the War Council to one of the first groups to cross the ocean: "Make the French glad that you have come." Aside from the moral support which was 26 Helping France doubtless given by the actual presence of their new ally in their midst — to which, from the day of our advent until now, the French press and people give tribute — there were sound military reasons why the Red Cross should add civilian to battlefield relief. War, never confined to the actual field of combat, has always caused destruction of property, and loss of civilian life. But never before has war been organized, nation against nation, as was the war which Germany organized and launched against the whole world, i When the heroic Mayor of Noyon, that ancient city where Charlemagne was crowned, protested against the infractions of the terms of the Hague convention by its German con- querors in 1914, he was told: "We are not making the war solely against the French Army: we are making it against the whole of France; our aim is to ruin it, to weaken it by every means possible. You complain of being pillaged; well, we consider every store, every unoccupied house as belonging to us: To Win the War 27 where there are legal occupants, we are dis- posed, by indulgence, not to take more than is necessary for the well-being of the German army. If we spare ever so little the civil pop- ulation of the war, and do not compel them to undergo all its consequences, it is because we are not barbarians; such are our methods of war, the harder they are, the more inexorable, the shorter will be the war!"* It was the realization of this menace, driven home by the violation of Belgium, the sinking of merchantmen, the well-attested atrocities of Northern France, that arrayed the civilized world against the outlaw, Germany. The defense of civilization was being made over there, on the plains of Picardy, along the Chemin des Dames, in the forests of Ardennes, at Verdun. "Whatever may be the character of the American Red Cross in time of peace," said the first Commissioner to France of the Amer- *Noyon pendant l'occupation allemande: Ernest Noel, in La Revue Hebdomadaire. 28 Helping France ican Red Cross, before the Anglo-American press on September 17, 1917, "to-day in the midst of this catastrophe, its supreme func- tion is to aid in every way possible the winning of the war. It would be a pitiable and mis- taken conception to regard it from the point of view of a charity at a moment like this. For three years our Allies have taken upon themselves our part in the battle. They have carried all the burden of anguish, they have suffered all the wounds, they have died for our sakes. It is inevitable that some time must yet elapse before our troops can play their part seriously in the trenches. Mean- time, the American organizations should claim it not only as a privilege, but as a strict obliga- tion, to do all that is in their power to aid the valiant nations to whom our people are so deeply indebted." Noyon, in April 1917. Reflexions et Croquis sur V Architecture au Pays de France: Georges Wybo. Hachette et Cie., Paris. CHAPTER III THE FIELD OF OPPORTUNITY THE American Red Cross Commission arrived in France in June, 1917. It consisted of eighteen members, each con- tributing some special part toward the great end in view, the winning of the war. Battle- field relief, it was understood, would be ef- fected immediately under the supervision of the War Department, but "civilian relief will present a field of increasing opportunity £9 30 Helping France in which the Red Cross organization is espe- cially adapted to serve.' * In the devastated area, which bounds the horizon of the present narrative, the field was indeed ample, and the opportunity ripe. One cannot picture wholesale destruction. Not even an eye witness of it, mile after mile, and village after village, can have the con- cept of it which would be his were the cottage razed, the village decimated, the region ruined, the country fought for, his own. Not only so, but that part of Northern France overtaken by perfidy in 1914, was, historically, the home of France. The modern names of the departments involved: the Nord and the Ardennes, completely swallowed up, the Pas- de-Calais, the Somme, the Aisne, the Oise, the Meuse, the Meurthe and Moselle, and the frontier of the Vosges, scenes for four years of gigantic struggle,— these revolutionary appella- tions lose completely their savour of an- tiquity. But let us mention the provinces of Artois, of Picardy, of Champagne, of Lor- The Field of Opportunity 31 raine, of the He de France, whence came the very name of the French nation, and there move before our eyes like a pageant the me- dieval powers, the spiritual dominions, the literary glory which have made the France of to-day. One of our soldiers, stationed near Domremy, was asked by a Frenchman, who was showing him about, if he knew Joan of Arc. "Sure," was the response, "I went to school Hth her." "And when was that?" inquire^ che astonished Frenchman. "In 1429," he replied. Whether many of our privates, like this one, have gone to school with French history or not, the children of France have done so generation by generation. Even a geography is not complete without its political account of the soil. Soissons, Reims, the Marches of Lorraine, the Santerre of Picardy, now laid in ruins, yet stand as rep- resentatives of the ideals of a race. Figures convey their picture of economic destruction. The devastated area, in its entirety, covered — and covers at the present 32 Helping France moment — six thousand square miles of France. It comprised that area most thickly populated, richest in manufactures, and richest in agri- culture. One quarter of the wheat crop was formerly raised in it. Eighty-seven per cent of the beets from which France derived her sugar came from it. 2,000,000 people had made in it their homes. In it were the> deposits of iron, of potash and of coal, greedily coveted by Germany; so much so, that the possession of them became that military necessity which turned into a scrap of paper the neutrality of Belgium and of Luxembourg. This area, varying with the fortune of bat- tles, consisted, in June, 1917, of the territory still in the hands of the Germans, of the actual front, and of the territory from which the Germans had been driven out. The former was being cared for, as well as it could be in captivity, by the Dutch and Spanish dele- gates who took over the operation of our Bel- gian Relief Commission on our entry into the war. The front, at least fifteen miles in The Field of Opportunity 33 depth at any given point, was reserved for military operations. Back of this front were situated the "regions liberees," of civilian relief. They extended in a broad swathe a hundred miles long by thirty wide, up the valley of the Marne. They paralleled the road to Verdun. They lay in a fringe along the northern border of the frontier provinces of the Meurthe and Moselle and the Vosges. Most recently uncovered, and hence offering the clearest opportunity, they comprised the 1580 square miles of the Somme, the Aisne and the Oise cleared of the Germans in the "Great Retreat" of March, 1917. It was to this area that the American Red Cross first turned its attention. A preliminary survey was made. Contrast may help to picture what the Commission saw. In a certain classic on agriculture,* may be found this description of the regions through which the Commission- ers passed. "They comprise those orchard Albert Demangeon : La Picardie. 34 Helping France lands, gardens and vineyards picturesquely mingling with, or bordering a field of wheat, a patch of vegetables., a bit of clover, a cluster of vines, often tilled by the spade, by a race of petty farmers. The division of the soil is pushed to the extent that the trees of the one owner overhang the property of the other; beneath the tangle of apple trees, of pears, of peaches, of apricots, of plums, of cherries and of nuts oftentimes trellised, are hidden a thousand varied crops which succeed one another without lapse; here the asparagus and the grapes of Laon; there the artichokes and the string beans of Noyon, everywhere, as far as Clermont, all the lucrative products of intensive culture, which have given to the valley of Therain between Clermont and Creil the name of the "Vale of Gold" (Vallee Doree). Nothing can equal the charm of those sunny and verdant slopes, at the same time orchards and gardens, their roads deep rutted by the coming and going of the laborers' heavy boots. This aspect of nature fresh The Field of Opportunity 35 and picturesque, this culture minute and varied, separates us widely from those plains of immense and monotonous toil where the eye loses itself at the horizon above the fields of grain." A writer of greater power passed this way in the summer of 1917. "In Egypt, behind the quarries on the Nile, there is a place as desolate where nothing living moves. But this is France — dear, rich, green France — this scorched and arid desert, with the cruel gaping wound torn in her fair side. This is France — and it is full summertime! Weeds and poppies and grasses, poppies and grasses and weeds, trenches and broken wagon wheels, a nightmare of ugly things. And here a pitiful group of crosses — and there another, tens of them, hundreds of them, close to the road. . . . " Come now and look from this mount. " A livid sky — a forest of blackened stumps and poles and the interminable stretch of weeds — nothing but this as far as the eye can see. 36 Helping France "Here you should count three hundred villages, with each a little church. "Villages? — Churches? — not even heaps of stones remain to mark their sepulchres. "Gone— blotted out."* Yet this is not the whole picture. There are intermediate tones. Not only were there such communes, like Combles, caught and crushed between opposing artillery, there were the greater number too quickly taken by the Germans to have suffered bombardment. Each, except for certain centers of refuge, suf- fered the same fate, to be held for a varying period, to be depopulated by successive de- portations, to be sacked and finally to be systematically destroyed. "The Germans, when they retreated in March, 1917, certainly believed that they had thrown insurmountable difficulties in our path. They left behind them smashed bridges and roads ripped up by tremendous explosions, which sometimes, as in Licourt, caused craters * Elinor Glyn: Destruction. Duckworth & Co., London. A House in Noyon. Apres le Recul Allemand, Mars 1917. Noyon, Guiscard, Ham: Armand Gueritte. Vernant & Dulle, Imprimeurs, Paris. The Field of Opportunity 37 fifty feet across and fifty feet deep. Some regions were flooded. Trees cut down across the highways were to be an obstacle to imme- diate pursuit. . And far behind the fighting lines, the enemy placed fields of barbed wire. Every bit of ground which had any strategic importance was fortified, trenched and camou- flaged for the eventual battles and for a pro- longed resistance." "They slyly prepared other ambushes which were to add to the effect of the obstacles in the path of the French troops. Their massing of the entire civil population which was not sent back to Germany, all the useless mouths, into certain villages which were, relatively speaking, spared, ■ was a military maneuver whose true purpose was not intuitively recog- nized by our incurable and candid generosity. We regarded it for a moment as a sort of man- ifestation of German pity! But it was all brutally clear when, immediately after the retreat, in the terrible confusion of battle, we had to feed those home-coming French 38 Helping France people suffering unimaginable distress. Little towns whose normal population was from three to five hundred saw these figures mul- tiplied by five; at Roye more than six thou- sand people were without food; at Chauny the frightened population at first received our troops, whose uniform they did not recog- nize, with stupor; at Ham it was again the army which had to provide improvised sup- plies. There was no means of communica- tion; there was nothing on the spot, the Ger- mans having taken everything away; the regions which had been spared were in total isolation in the midst of a desert, where noth- ing disturbed the horrible solitude except the whirl of neighboring battles."* *Le Temps, Jan. 6, 1918. Notre Dame, From St. Julien-le-Pauvre. Reflexions et Croquis sur V Architecture au Pays de France: Georges Wybo. Hachette et Cie., Paris. CHAPTER IV the plan: organization SUCH was the immediate field of oppor- tunity presented to the American Red Cross. Its needs were patent. Housing was necessary, food was necessary, the revival of agriculture and of industries was necessary. What few doctors were left in the region had been deported by the Germans; even med- icines had been packed in the great vans that bore every mobile article of value away. Doc- 39 40 Helping France tors were necessary for the children and the old people insufficiently nourished and ab- normally depressed. The cure's had shared the fate of the doctors. Spiritual and moral encouragement, the restoration of normal life — these were the things most necessary of all. But, as has been said, the American Red Cross did not have its chosen field to itself. Its first problem of organization was to deter- mine its relation to the many agencies already operating in the devastated area, some of them since the beginning of the war. They grouped themselves in three classes: governmental, military, and private. There was no question of the place of the American Red Cross in regard to the two former. It came to France by invitation from the French Government; it would work in the army zone only by con- sent of the armies of occupation. Its duty was to subordinate its purpose to that of the government and of the army, and to place its resources at their disposal. But the third The Plan: Organization 41 group, that of private agencies, presented matter for careful study. The American societies, up to the time of the arrival of the American Red Cross, had accomplished their work for the French army and for French civilians under the authoriza- tion of the French Government. In fact, they were incorporated in the Service de Sante of the French Army. What was to be the rela- tion between these groups, already established, and the American Red Cross? The status of the American Relief Clearing House, the fore- runner and official representative of the Red Cross in France, was a determining factor in the policy finally adopted. This was " an organization which came into existence during the early months of the war, for the purpose of relieving the confusion into which relief supplies coming from America had been thrown, and of expediting their dis- tribution to those in need. It was found that without some organization devoted especially to these purposes, the relief of which the suf- 42 Helping France ferers were in such urgent need, was sub- jected to great delay in reaching them; that it was frequently misdirected through lack of proper information on the part of the senders; that through ignorance of the for- malities of French ports, supplies were fre- quently denied entry altogether; and that quite as often for various reasons many val- uable gifts were lost. "The purpose of the organization is there- fore to centralize and control as far as pos- sible at Paris the receipt of all relief from America destined for France and her Allies, as the most convenient point for distribution: "To investigate the needs of all localities, to keep the New York office informed as to the requirements of different districts and by constant advice to prevent overlapping and duplication. "To clear at all points of entry all goods consigned from America. "To forward to destination, without undue delay, all goods received and, through the The Plan: Organization 43 facilities offered by the French Government, to expedite the transshipment of goods cleared from Port of Entry and to require receipts from consignees at point of final destination. "To secure from the French authorities free transportation both by sea and by rail in France of all goods destined for relief, and, therefore, to minimize the expenses incident to the work of all relief societies co-operating with the Clearing House. "To distribute to best advantage, accord- ing to our information as to actual present needs, any relief that may be entrusted to the discretion of the Clearing House for this pur- pose; and to keep and render strict account of the same. "The functions of the Clearing House briefly are: "1. To forward to destination all relief supplies sent through it consigned to partic- ular societies; "2. To receive and distribute relief sup- plies where most needed; 44 Helping France "3. To receive money and to purchase supplies either with or without definite in- structions as to distribution; "4. To provide these facilities free of all expense to the donors."* The American Red Cross automatically absorbed the American Relief Clearing House and its functions. Its Director General be- came the Director General of the Red Cross, and a number of its prominent officers took positions of responsibility in the new organi- zation. At the same time, the policy of the Red Cross toward all the organizations, French, American or British, subsidized to any degree by the Clearing House under- went a radical change. Whereas the Clearing House had assumed the responsibility of for- warding supplies and money to particular destinations, the Red Cross hastened to state that it considered its function to be the im- partial distribution at its discretion of all supplies sent from America to the relief of * Report. The Plan: Organization 45 France. The reasons for this change were two-fold. First, there was great inequality of distribution to the different organizations de- pendent on the Clearing House, varying with the size of the receiving society, and the effectiveness of its propaganda, rather than with the actual needs of the localities served. Second, and more vital, there was the cutting down of transportation facilities from America, incident to our active participation in the war. At first only nine hundred tons per month were allowed to the American Red Cross for all its activities, military as well as civilian, on United States transports, and the maximum reached at any time by allowance was four thousand tons. Although this amount was increased by space paid for whenever possible on regular merchantmen, the average ship- ment per month of Red Cross supplies from America during the war, stands at about the latter figure, four thousand tons. Not only was the Red Cross thus made account- 46 Helping France able to the home government for the amount of its[shipments. It had scrupulous obligations to the French Government, which, in the midst of its heavy transportation of men and supplies for actual fighting, gave free trans- portation in the interior to the supplies and the personnel of the American Red Cross as it had done to those of the Clearing House. Despite this limited tonnage, and the lim- ited railroad transportation, the American Red Cross was in duty bound to greatly in- crease the volume of its output over that of the Clearing House. It must go into the market to buy. But here again were restric- tions; the Army, French, British or Amer- ican, had always the precedence. Thus it came about that supplies and their proper distribution assumed such importance as to become the crux of the whole administrative problem of civilian relief. Naturally, readjustment on the new basis took time, and designated shipments were honored as such until an agreement could be The Plan: Organization 47 reached. But it was the feeling of the Amer- ican Red Cross that the ideal to be aimed at was the absorption rather than the affiliation of American relief agencies. They had as a guide in this policy, the centralized organiza- tion of our Belgian Relief Commission, which had worked on the German side of the lines in the identical territory into which the Red Cross was to enter. They had in mind the pool- ing of all resources, as was done in the United States itself. They had found the French ceuvres (societies), excellent in themselves, working in detachment, the one from the other. "Our French Red Cross itself is represented by three organizations which have been asso- ciated in a common committee only since the beginning of the war,"* wrote M. Firmin Roz in comparing it with the American Red Cross. What better service could the De- partment of Civilian Relief give to French societies having the same aim as itself than a working example of centralized organization? * In La Revue Hebdomadaire. 48 Helping France All American relief agencies for civilians were, therefore, invited to confer informally, with the tentative idea of becoming integral parts of the American Red Cross. This plan did not meet with success. It was perhaps undesirable that it should have done so. The other societies had their chapters, their clubs, their clientele at home, their affiliations with the French Government abroad. Their founders had been pioneers during our neutrality, giving, many of them, of their private resources, as an expression of their passionate attachment to the cause of France. Most of their leaders were women of influence and of initiative. Otherwise, in the midst of the difficulties which confronted them, their organizations would never have been born. They had succeeded, and by their success held what the American Red Cross had yet to win, the confidence of the French Government. They felt, with justice, that they had much to offer the Red Cross in the way of resources and of experience. The Plan: Organization 49 All this they did offer, but they were unwilling to give up their identity. A compromise was therefore effected. In the field of civilian relief, for instance, one society, that of the American Friends — a very large group — became a department under the Red Cross, but without losing its name. An- other, the Smith College Relief Unit, retained both its name and its independent financial support, but worked as a direct agent of the Red Cross. A third, the Secours Anglo- Americain at Amiens, lost both its name and its outside support, its personnel becoming Red Cross workers. Others, such as the American Fund for French Wounded, and later the American Committee for Devastated France, were loosely affiliated, retaining their complete independence, receiving a monthly stipend, cooperating in transportation, sup- plies and personnel. With two societies, the American Fund for French Wounded and the Friends, the Red Cross made special ar- rangements as to designated shipments. 50 Helping France In general, however, the policy of the Amer- ican Red Cross crystallized into that of cooper- ation with existing societies, whether Amer- ican, French, Canadian or British. But, as to the two latter, it is only fair to state that the relations of the American Red Cross with them are best described as neighborly, both parties, with scrupulous Anglo-Saxon inde- pendence, returning all favors received. To- ward all other agencies, in the words of one of the organizers of relief in the devastated area, the Red Cross became, not an oeuvre itself, but the "Mother of (Euvres." "We have looked," he writes, "on the liberated regions of France as an experimental field in which to create a personnel and a pro- gramme for the larger piece of work, when all of the north of France is disengaged. To this end we have used, as our agents, all pos- sible existing relief organizations already in the field. We have endeavored to federate these organizations in order to deal with them more simply, and to plan for the more im- The Plan: Organization 51 portant demands which will come to us from them." In brief, the policy of the American Red Cross in France has been subordination, coor- dination, cooperation; subordination to the French Government, the French and allied armies, subordination always to the needs of our own army; coordination and cooperation with all existing agencies, — a policy by no means easy to attain. Bridge at Tours. inflexions et Croquis sur V Architecture au Pays de France: Georges Wybo. Hachette et Cie., Paris. CHAPTER, V the plan: administration HAVING determined its broad lines of policy, the American Red Cross created the administrative machinery to carry them out. Its main office was located in Paris, the center of government, and of every consider- able agency of relief. At its head stood the Commissioner for France. Under him, mil- itary and civilian affairs were sharply divided into two departments. The administrator of the latter was styled the Director of Civilian 52 The Plan: Administration 53 Relief. So far as the liberated regions were concerned, this department was further sub- divided into three bureaus: The Children's Bureau, occupied primarily with matters of public health as affecting the future citizens of France; the Bureau of Reconstruction, dealing with the repair of damaged houses and architectural planning, and the Bureau of Relief and Economic Rehabilitation. Fortunately for the work of the Depart- ment, there were available for its personnel at this time a number of former delegates of the Belgian Relief Commission, who could no longer work in Belgium and France owing to our having become belligerents in the war. They brought to the Department not only valuable training in what might be called wholesale economic relief, but also in some instances first-hand acquaintance with the area most recently liberated in Northern France. The plan of relief adopted was largely influenced by them, being a modifica- tion of that previously worked out by this 54 Helping France Commission. It consisted of the controlling office in Paris, quickly amalgamated into the Bureau of Rehabilitation and Relief, and field delegates sent out from it to definitely assigned areas. To make the plan of operation clear, it will be better to consider this method as operative from September 1, 1917, to March 21, 1918. On this latter date occurred the last German offensive which swept again into chaos the "region libe'ree." It was evident that material relief was the thing to be sent first into that stricken coun- try. There was need of tons of clothing, of shoes, of furniture, particularly beds and bed- ding, of household utensils, agricultural im- plements, stoves, soap and food. Free trans- portation by rail had been accorded. It re- mained to divide the four invaded depart- ments (the Oise, the Aisne, the Somme and the Pas-de-Calais) into districts centering about warehouses which should distribute these supplies. Haste was important; sum- mer was turning into autumn, autumn into The Son of a Soldier, Paris. The Plan: Administration 55 winter — such a winter as the invaded terri- tories had never seen. For it must be borne in mind that even under the German occupa- tion, there had remained to the unfortunate inhabitants their homes, their furniture, their farms. Whereas the autumn of 1917 found them free and reunited to their country, on the other hand, scarcely a family had escaped its quota of members sent into slavery, and only a small proportion retained their roofs above their heads. With the kindly cooperation of presets, mayors and army officers, the sites of the warehouses in the north were chosen and buildings secured at Amiens, Ham, Nesle (Somme), Noyon (Oise) and Soissons (Aisne). The latter, the nearest point from the great central warehouse at Paris, was distant sixty- five miles; Amiens, eighty-one miles away, was the farthest north, but Ham was thirty- six miles from Amiens, through which owing to the St. Quentin salient, all freight to it had to be shipped. Naturally these sites were 56 Helping France selected for two reasons; their accessibility, and their importance to the districts to be served by them. The capacity of these ware- houses gives some idea of the amount of freight handled: Amiens (undestroyed) forty carloads, Ham, five carloads, Nesle, five car- loads, Noyon, twelve carloads, and Sois- sons, three carloads. But the speed of opera- tion varied in these warehouses with the dif- ficulties of rail and motor transport. Mili- tary maneuvers always took precedence over civilian freight, even to the extent of tem- porary shortage in civilian food. Despite the danger from bombing, and the always pos- sible German advance, the accumulation of supplies in the warehouses, therefore, seemed advisable. The value of the goods so stored against emergencies in March, 1918, is inter- esting in this connection: Amiens, Fr. 300,000; Ham, 197,568.10; Nesle, 137,000; Noyon, 208,834, and Soissons, 334,947.94. Yet the warehouses emptied themselves with astonishing rapidity. Attached to each The Plan: Administration 57 was a head warehouse man and a transport service of from one to five trucks, with drivers, and a passenger Ford. Under the Red Cross direction worked a force of men usually as- signed by the French Army for unloading and reloading goods. The value of this transport service alone in a zone where there were prac- tically no private conveyances, where every automobile had to be militarized, and where gasoline could be obtained only on an army order and then at a cost of six francs a litre, can hardly be overestimated. Next to the relief supplies themselves, transportation was the most essential service rendered by the Red Cross in the regions devastees. Yet the duties of the four delegates to whom the warehouses and their staffs were assigned comprised much more than the mere distri- bution of relief. The instructions from the central office to the delegate were as follows: 1. To reside in his district. 2. To establish friendly relations with all officials, civil and military, in his district. 58 Helping France 3. To study and report upon means of com- munication and transportation. 4. To study and report upon: (a) The amount of destruction caused by the war. (6) The number of civilians who are back and the rapidity with which they are return- ing. (c) The condition of those who are back and how they live and what they do. (d) Organization and range of all relief machinery in the field, including that of the government. 5. To establish friendly relations with other organizations and through them aid the civil population in such ways as seem desirable and feasible. 6. To have general oversight of the ware- house in his district and cooperate with the warehouse department. In other words, as the head of the Bureau wrote six months later: "From the start we have tried to impress upon the ceuvres the The Plan: Administration 59 American Red Cross point-of-view that our effort is not intended as simple charity, but as a direct contribution to the rehabilitation of the invaded departments of France; that we do not intend to assume any part of the normal burden of poor relief in these depart- ments; that our help is intended to set war- sufferers on their feet and to make them self- respecting, independent and productive cit- izens; that it is important for the future as well as for the present that beneficiaries of American Red Cross aid should know that it is America which is helping them — the same America which is their militant Ally." It will be seen that a delegate was, in his way, an ambassador from America to his province, and in need of special qualifications of tact, of sympathy, of decision. It is the delegates, not only in the devastated area, but in any department, who have made the living history of the civilian relief of the American Red Cross in France. Public Fountain at Noyon. Reflexions et Croquis sur V Architecture au Pays de France: Georges Wybo. Hachette et Cie., Paris. CHAPTER VI the plan: cooperation THE first delegate to reach his field was, naturally, the delegate assigned to the district most accessible, that radiating from Noyon, in the Oise. He established himself there in the first week of September, 1917. There were already many agencies which had preceded him, since this area had been rapidly cleared in March, and was well behind the lines. These agencies were those of the Third 60 The Plan: Cooperation 61 French Army, those of the Government, rep- resented by the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Prefecture of the Department, and private societies. Of these latter, one was American and six were French. Between the private societies and the Government, however, there were connecting links, through the Comite du Secours National, attached to the Ministry of the Interior, which federalized and sub- sidized French activities of relief, both public and private; and, more directly, for all so- cieties, through a special sous-prefet repre- senting the Ministry, and appointed as liaison officer in each department of the invaded territory between the French Army, the relief organizations and the Government. After all, it was the Army, reaching up through the Ministry of War, which governed this territory by martial law, and it was the Army which assigned to each agency its sec- tor of relief. At the head of this civilian service for the Third Army was Captain Pal- 62 Helping France lain, stationed at Noyon. It will be seen that the stage was well set for the operation of Red Cross policy. In a book of this scope, it would be both impossible and inappropriate to enter upon a description of the intricate yet fascinating schemes of relief worked out between the various departments of the French Govern- ment, the various corps of the French Army, the various prefectures, and the ceuvres, in the devastated area. Yet it would be equally impossible to understand the course of the American Red Cross in any given district without some grasp of the main principles which underlay all the variations, and de- fined the limits within which it was free to operate. It is only fair to state that the French, masterly in their strategy of war, have been equally masterly in their concep- tion of organized relief. And if we, in our American impatience, have sometimes chafed at the "red tape" of this organization, it is perhaps only because, drained of their The Plan: Cooperation 63 resources by the demands of military cam- paigns, whose thunders often shook the fields reclaimed, the French Army and the French Government were unable to carry out their ideals. Four years of stupendous warfare had tested not only the methods, but the spir- itual and material capital of the French nation. The greatest struggle, as all the world knows now, was yet to be made, in the campaigns of 1918. If, therefore, the Amer- ican Red Cross has made a contribution of value to France in this struggle, it is not so much in the domain of organization as it is in that of resources, both of personnel and of supplies, which enabled existing organizations to perform their work. The practical scheme of reconstruction put in operation by the Third French Army was in accordance with the principles laid down by General Lyautey for a friendly army of occupation in a ravaged territory. It was placed in charge of a man of large affairs, Cap- tain Pallain being the son of the President of 64 Helping France the Bank of France. It comprised (1) food supply, (2) actual rebuilding, (3) plowing, seeding, and supplying of farm animals, (4) sanitation. In short, while in the midst of an active campaign, it set itself to repair what the Germans had destroyed. Put in another way, it supplied transport, labor, and the functions of local government. Sectors containing each an engineer, a phy- sician, and an agricultural expert were given charge of stated areas. Labor was supplied immediately back of the lines by soldiers en repos, by Moroccans or Annamites whose red turbans or conical hats lent a curious oriental color to the dun landscape, or, further back, by hundreds of German prisoners. By au- tumn, in the region of Noyon, twelve hundred hectares or three thousand acres, had been plowed and planted. In all, in the region occupied by the Third Army, four thousand five hundred houses were repaired and five hundred built. The same care of civilians was taken on the The Plan: Cooperation 65 British side of the lines. It was a military- necessity, an offset to the war which Germany made upon civilians. The German Army had had its sectors also, of destruction and not of construction. To them were attached skilled mechanics who knew the essential parts of agricultural machinery, and removed the same part from each machine in their line of retreat. There were expert foresters who calculated to a nicety the girdling of fruit trees. There were chemists, who gauged the charges of explosives, and poisoned the wells. The field of this economic combat of nations was the richest of wheat lands, — and food would win the war. It followed that the allied armies of occupation must organize their civilian sectors for salvage in this new form of war. But as the allied armies advanced their trenches, the land behind them became safer for civilians. The departmental government and the Ministry of the Interior took over more and more of its duties from the Army. 66 Helping France For example, a daily stipend was allotted by the Government to any family which had suf- fered loss of property or of wage earners. This was calculated to cover the bare cost of food, which was distributed by the depart- mental machinery. Depots were established of the most essential articles of furniture, which were given out through the mayors of communes. Each allotment bore a stated value, and this was to be deducted from a post-war settlement of damages to be paid by the Government. Cooperative grocery stores were also established, and, under the Depart- ment of Agriculture, associations of farmers who clubbed together to avail themselves of government tractors and government labor in the plowing of their land. Most important of all, the Government made, \ \ transported and allocated temporary shacks for the housing of the civilian population, the labor for the putting up of which was furnished largely by the Army. In all of this period of transition from military to civil government, the special The Plan: Cooperation 67 sous-pre*fet already mentioned was the con- necting link between them. One might question the need of private relief in a field so carefully covered by gov- ernment agencies, were it not that the Gov- ernment welcomed and made a place for them in its staggering task. It was not the Gov- ernment, but the Chamber of Commerce of Dunkerque which stored there in anticipa- tion of the allied advance, the first supplies of food rushed to the civilians of the liberated regions. In the eastern zone, it was the Secours d'Urgence that performed a like ser- vice. Warerooms were assigned to various societies in Paris, and a transport service placed at their disposal by the Army. The very names of the French ceuvres are indic- ative of the emergency which created them and of the hold they have on the sympathy of the public which supports them. There are, for instance, the Abri (Shelter), the Bon Gite (Good Lodging), the Armoire Lorraine (Wardrobe of Lorraine), the Renaissance des 68 Helping France Foyers (the Rebirth of the Homes), the Village Reconstitue (the Village Rebuilt), the Aisne Devastee (the Devastated Aisne), the Secours d'Urgence (Emergency Relief). At the head of them all, in point of age and of prestige, are the Secours aux Blesses Mili- taires, the Union des Femmes de France and the Association des Dames de France, the three societies which make up the French Red Cross. All loosely federated under a liaison officer between the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Interior, it remained for these societies to work out their individual cooperation in accordance with the kind of help with which the one could supplement the other. Take, for instance, the history of one of the French societies represented in the district assigned to the Red Cross delegate in the Oise, that known as the Comite" de Babceuf. The village of Babceuf was destroyed by the Germans, and with it, the Chateau belonging to its chief councilor. His wife had a friend Ruins of Contalmaison, Somme. The Plan: Cooperation 69 in Paris, a member of the Secours aux Blesses Militaires of the French Red Cross. She interested her in Baboeuf. This was the be- ginning of the small ceuvre which was later taken under the patronage of the Secours aux Blesses Militaires. Its plan of operation was simple. The first report reads : " Some nurses of the S. S. B. M. came to Babceuf in May, 1917, to be the bond of union between the soci- eties of mercy at a distance and the unfor- tunate populations" In the beginning, lacking means of transport, the establishment at Baboeuf could act only in a very limited sector. Colonel Barry, of the British Red Cross, then placed at their disposal a small truck and a driver. From this beginning, their dependent villages grew. Their fur- niture was donated to them for distribution by the Bon Gite from its central reservoir in Paris. Twelve other societies, representing five nationalities and three religious faiths — Protestant, Hebrew and Catholic — cooper- ated with them, some giving clothing, others 70 Helping France cloth, and others farm animals. Last, but not least, the Comite hired a gang of work- men and, with the help of the Army, repaired its villages. With such a spirit of cooperation already abroad, it was easy for the delegate of the American Red Cross to make himself wel- come. He represented, in their eyes, one more cooperating agency. But there was this difference between the American Red Cross and all other societies in the field. It was its purpose to cooperate impartially with all. Not only so, but in an unofficial capacity to influence the methods employed in the giving of relief, by selecting the agencies which should be the distributors of its supplies. In every case, the watchword was passed on from headquarters to avoid giving as a charity, to remember that the ultimate consumer was a self-respecting citizen, rendered temporarily helpless, but only temporarily, by the mis- fortunes of war. Even though the inhabi- tants left in the invaded regions were, for the The Plan: Cooperation 71 most part, women, old people and children, they came of a hardy race inured to toil, ac- customed for hundreds of years to the wastage of contending armies. In nearly every case they had rescued their savings, those peasant savings which, as all the world knows, are the "long stocking" of the wealth of France. The economic effort of the French Govern- ment was in accord with this Red Cross policy of helping the unfortunates to help them- selves. And in the devastated regions the delegates of the Red Cross had also a valuable precedent in their favor. The Belgian Relief Commission, operating in the same territory behind the German lines, had made it a rule to sell for a nominal sum rather than to give outright. The smallest peasant understood and approved a plan which saved him from humiliation. It was recognized as the Amer- ican way. Municipal Offices at Urrugne. Reflexions et Croquis sur V Architecture au Pays de France: Georges Wybo. Hachette et Cie., Paris. CHAPTER VII COOPERATION IN PRACTICE COOPERATION is a large word on paper, and looms larger in practice. Applied to the district manned by the American Red Cross delegate, it represented over 2000 square miles of territory and approximately 150,000 souls. The means at his command were (1) a warehouse, yet to be chosen and stocked, (2) a Ford passenger car, and later, a camionette, (3) a warehouse man, and later, 72 Cooperation in Practice 73 together with the camionette, a secretary, and a chauffeur. Noyon, his base of operations, was at the time of his advent, and up to the time of the armistice, the railhead on the main line from Paris to St. Quentin. Fifteen miles back, at Compiegne, were the grand headquarters of the French Army; from fifteen to twenty-five miles away in a sweeping semi- circle to the north and to the east extended the front line. Noyon figured in the plan of Germany as the gate on the direct road to Paris; conversely, it was to the French their gateway for troops, supplies and ammunition going up into the Somme. Camions in hun- dreds and thousands, cavalry, batteries of seventy-fives, steady marching infantry, blue devils, convoys of donkeys used to carry am- munition under fire, flocks of sheep, the whizzing cars of officers, — all passed like a pageant through Noyon. Nor were the sounds of combat absent. German aeroplanes, well aware of the activities centering in their former stronghold, visited it nearly every day. Bombs 74 Helping France were dropped, trains were wrecked, and the bullets of air battles, taking place almost out of sight in the blue sky above, came dropping down in the city streets. Naturally, civilian affairs took secondary place in the matter of transport. Yet the army in the midst of its campaign set aside an efficient camion service from Noyon to carry civilian supplies. In this way, Noyon was the center of civilian as well as of military activity for the neighborhood, and all the relief agen- cies radiated from it. These latter dotted the ruined countryside at irregular intervals, from Golancourt in the Somme, to Senlis, the southernmost point of German devastations in the Oise, taking in, on the east, a section only five miles from the front line trenches at Villequier-Aumont, in the Aisne. At Golan- court was located a Friends' Unit, composed of both British and American workers; at Guiscard, a distributing station of the Renais- sance des Foyers, at Babceuf, twelve miles west of Noyon, the Comite* already men- Cooperation in Practice 75 tioned, at Ribecourt, Lassigny and Noyon itself advance posts of the Village Recon- stititue*, at Chiry-Ourscamp the nurses of the Villages Liber6s, and at Villequier-Aumont, nearest of all to the lines, an American women's unit, the Philadelphia Committee of the Pennsylvania Emergency Aid. All, it will be noted, had located their main posts of relief in the villages. All were bending their energies to the revival of agriculture in this, the richest agricultural area of France. The colony at Golancourt, twelve strong, was engaged in actual plowing, planting and re- stocking of farms; the Philadelphia Com- mittee with a personnel averaging the same number, charged itself with the rehabilita- tion and reconstruction of five villages, in- cluding the building, equipping and teaching of two schools; the French societies with a smaller personnel and practically no trans- portation, worked a larger area, giving rather emergent relief. This personnel consisted of visiting nurses, 76 Helping France settled, two by two, in their districts. In addition, the Villages Liberes had a phy- sician. Yet this does not convey to an Amer- ican an exact idea of the type of work accom- plished. In the first place, France has no trained nurses, in the same sense that we have in America. Most of the nurses, whether belonging to the Secours aux Blesses Mil- itaires, to the Femmes de France, or to the Dames de France, are ladies of social stand- ing, of intelligence and of unselfish devotion, who volunteer in this service. Their role in the devastated area would correspond more to that of Sisters of Charity with us. As in the case of the Baboeuf Comite, they were pri- marily distributing agents of societies at a distance. Their barracks contained besides dispensaries, dormitories for the shelterless returning refugees. They were oases of moral and social inspiration in their communities. These societies naturally became the largest distributors of American Red Cross supplies. Take, for instance, the post at Lassigny. Cooperation in Practice 77 For two years and a half, Lassigny, situated on the heights above Noyon, had been swept by the cross fire of two opposing armies. The gently-rounded slopes about it, originally cov- ered with copses, lie denuded, scarred with intricate, deep-gashed trenches, bristled by occasional trees, skeletons of the once lovely woods, from which even the bark is stripped bare. In Lassigny, so total had been the destruction of its houses that in May 1917 only two of its nine hundred inhabitants were back. Yet the poor remnant of its popula- tion continued to increase, existing in cellars, until by December one hundred and seventy had returned. Barracks, given by the Gov- ernment, were erected by the Army. Con- spicuous among them was the blue-painted headquarters of the Village Reconstitue\ set at the crossroad. Here two courageous nurses of the Union des Femmes de France distrib- uted the succor provided by their subsidizing agencies. Two cows furnished milk, which was given to undernourished children; a 78 Helping France vegetable garden was planted, hens and rab- bits for the restocking of farms were raised. With the help of one sewing machine, the revival of industry began. A workroom for all the women within walking distance of Lassigny was established. The opening of workrooms was one of the functions of the French societies, notably of the Femmes de France, most helpful to the morale of the devastated areas. No one was quicker than the French themselves to see the danger of pauperizing the unfortunate peasants. A regular scale of wages was arranged. Or, did the worker desire, she could have the finished products, up to the estimated value of her work. Before the advent of the American Red Cross at Noyon, the Baron Rothschild had supplied both the material and the market for these wares. His was, in fact, a very interesting experiment in social economics. He supplied material at cost, bought at a fixed price, and sold again at a commercial rate in Paris, the garments made. Cooperation in Practice 79 In addition, he had established a store, in the old archiepiscopal palace at Noyon, where one could buy household necessities at cost also, and a depot for the setting up of chains of grocery stores. His idea was, not profit, but a business which should support itself and at the same time render an invaluable service to a community absolutely without stores or markets or merchandise. The American Red Cross was able to aug- ment quickly the amount of material fur- nished to the workrooms thus established, and to do it without cost. It came at a time when the Baron's experiment was drawing to a close, owing to the resumption of normal trade. In place of one sewing machine, it gave as many as were needed. The circle at Lassigny grew under this stimulus from twenty mem- bers to seventy-five. Perhaps with the idea of lessening gossip and bickering, a phono- graph was supplied. But, most important of all, the American Red Cross was able to give back to Lassigny its wells. Not only were the 8o Helping France waters of Lassigny rendered undrinkable, as were all the wells of the devastated area, by the shoveling in of filth; they were filled to the top and grassed over. One could only guess where the wells had been. German prisoners dug out the wells in time, and the water was analyzed by army chemists and pronounced fit to drink. But there were no pumps in Lassigny until the Red Cross bought them in Paris, transported them, and set them up. Naturally, the Red Cross delegate was the recipient of many requests for aid. All the Red Cross asked was to be of service. Hence, not long after the arrival of the delegate, the sous-prefet stationed at Noyon suggested that a small portable sawmill would be of the greatest help in furthering the repair of houses, so essential to the return of the popu- lation. Along the highways which, every- where in France, are arched with stately trees, the Germans had left behind them thousands of felled trunks. Nor, it is interesting to note, Cooperation in Practice 81 were most of these felled across the road to serve as barricades. Like lines of soldiers mowed down by opposing barrages they lie, mile after mile, their hacked bases to the road- side, their once green tops to the fields. The American Red Cross installed a circular steam saw to cut these trees; the American Friends* Unit furnished the man to run it, and the lumber went to make the barracks for the vil- lage of Tracy-le-Mont. j The civilian authorities as rapidly as pos- sible took over more and more of the admin- istration of the Oise from the army. Their programme of relief centered in an agricultural association of the farmers into groups known as cooperatives. The purpose was to band together a sufficient number of the small farmers who abound in this region to allow of the plowing of the land by tractor or by teams of horses and plows owned or rented in com- mon. The difficulty of inducing the peasant farmers to enter into any such arrangement was great. Each had been brought up for 82 Helping France generations to be tenacious of his own, to be independent of his fellows. And now, at a time when landmarks were destroyed, and the very title to his property in all probability lost, he was asked to level what was left of his boundaries, to entrust a tithe of his hardly saved money to the keeping of others. At a critical moment, the American Red Cross was able to present thirty -five of these cooper- atives with a plow apiece as tangible evidence of some advantage to be derived from the scheme. At Golancourt, again, the plow was in the hands of the cooperative, the horses of the Friends' Unit were ready to plow, but there was lack of oats. It was not only that oats were lacking; it was strictly forbidden to use them for fodder, as the Government was hoarding them for planting. But the Red Cross was able to supply oats. School furniture and subsidies to replace school equipment were another form of Red Cross aid. For the Germans, in all the coun- try artificially destroyed by them, wreaked Cooperation in Practice 83 a special spite upon churches, town halls and schools. Interesting as were the indirect methods of aid consistently adhered to by the American Red Cross in the Qise, it is, after all, in direct contact that human interest always lies. The appeals made to the Red Cross delegate were turned over by him to the proper source of help. But in passing through his hands, they left him with a knowledge that he was fulfilling in his way a duty very dear to the hearts of the French. An adjutant in a French Army Corps writes him: "I have the honor to call to your benevolent attention the situation of the family living at C — in the canton of Lassigny. During a tour of the front in the region most recently liberated, I was able to substantiate the following facts: The village, counting about five hundred hearths is, so to speak, entirely demolished, the few habitations still standing are open to the winds, the roofs, in spite of the hasty repairs made by the Army, let in water every- 84 Helping France where. Mme. X — lives alone with one little girl of five, and a boy of thirteen. She is seriously wounded and perhaps in agony. Her husband was deported as a civilian host- age into Germany. Her oldest son, married and father of a family, has been at the front since the beginning; her second son is a pris- oner in Germany and the third is at the point of death, terribly burned by the explosion of a shell lying in the line of march. Mme. X — is without a single resource, the Germans having taken everything away; work tools, garden tools, mattresses, linen, and every object of value. "During the German occupation, Mme. X — having some medical knowledge, suc- ceeded, by a combination of tact and devo- tion, in nursing and in assisting all the wounded prisoners cared for in the district. She saved at the risk of her life and that of her infants, the big bronze bell of the church presented by the Emperor Napoleon. ] "Thinking that this woman, more than Cooperation in Practice 85 being necessitous, was above all a heroine, 1 have believed it well, and have allowed my- self, to call her to your kind attention." A second letter comes from a lieutenant in the French Army, presenting the case of another family entirely unknown to him. But in his company is a soldier, who has been taken in and given shelter during his repos by a grandmother and her granddaughter somewhere in the Oise. They have treated him like one of the family. Now, as he is about to leave for the front, the grandmother has been taken ill; the granddaughter is young and not strong. He has already written to a married daughter at a distance. The daughter, whose husband is ill in bed, writes in turn to her brother, thinking that some arrangement can be made for her to go to their mother. But in vain. So, all these letters, carefully annotated, the lieutenant encloses with his own, asking the American Red Cross to help. Not only was it the destitute peasants, but the unfortunates of another class that the 86 Helping France American Red Cross was privileged to assist. I refer especially to the heroic chatelaines of ruined chateaux. A book might be written on them in the relief work of France. Like the president of the Villages Lib6re*s, from whom I have before quoted, many considered themselves by their very misfortunes elected to assist their more needy neighbors. In France, there are class distinctions, handed down from feudalism, which we in America do not know. The Parisian lady, of ever so charitable intentions, is as much at sea as an American in dealing with the Picard peasants. "Superstitious, stingy, independent, reserved, yet when they have once given their confi- dence, absolutely loyal, and brave beyond anything I have even imagined," — this is the characterization of them given by an American worker among these peasants of France. Two ladies in the Oise rendered invaluable service by staying on their ruined estates and inter- preting the needs of their dependents. One is Mme. Menget of the Babceuf Committee, A Street in Guiscard. The Chdteau, Ham. Apres le Recul Allemand, Mars 1917. Noyon, Guiscard, Ham: Armand Gueritte. Vernant <& Dolle, Imprimeurs, Paris. Cooperation in Practice 87 and the other the Comtesse d'Evry of Namp- cel. The story of the latter epitomizes the sort of help that the Red Cross has given in the Oise. The Comtesse d'Evry had, before the war, a chateau on a cliff overlooking the hamlet of Nampcel which clustered about its little church in a narrow gorge. Four farms in the commune belonged to her. She had be- sides, two other estates, one further south in the Oise, and another in Normandy. The counts of Evry have long been established at Nampcel. Besides the rich farmlands, there had been extensive quarries there. The houses, like most in this region, were solidly built of stone. The first flying wedge of the Germans overwhelmed and destroyed the hamlet. The inhabitants fled, the Comtesse herself among them, with her little boy. The caretakers of the chateau, however, refused to leave. But their devotion was futile; the chateau was looted, soaked in kerosene and burned. The spring of 1917, however, found the Com- 88 Helping France tesse back in her ruined village. Like her neighbors, she was homeless, but undaunted. She fitted up a caravan and set it, not on the isolated height, but down in the valley, among her villagers. As they returned, she cared for them and gave them employment on her farms. Her days were full, her villagers happy until in March, 1918, came the second catastrophe. The Germans returned, but the Comtesse was prepared. She had farm wagons and horses. These she divided among her people. On each she placed a store of pro- visions to last several days, — and that store of provisions came from the American Red Cross. Last of all she loaded the cart which was to take her boy, a lad of twelve. She put him in charge of her overseer and his wife, and started the whole slow procession off to her estate in Normandy. It lends a bright color to the picture of universal desolation to know that here, as elsewhere, the children regarded the exodus as a glorious adventure. Such are the contrasts of war. Cooperation In Practice 89 Mme. d'Evry herself did not go to Nor- mandy. In the midst of her second flight from Nampcel, she was already laying plans for her return. She had it in mind to plant potatoes on the lawn of her estate to the south, so as to have them ready for winter use. To this estate, therefore, she retired, and there she was able to give a temporary shelter to the personnel of the American Red Cross, when they were at last driven south from Com- piegne. Strawberries, sugar and cream I have heard awaited them, — an unbelievable contrast to days of evacuating and feeding refugees, and nights of continuous bombing. The Comtesse d'Evry's potato crop was planted, and dug, and stored away. But none too soon. By the autumn of 1918, she again went back to Nampcel. The heights about that village have been swept as by a cyclone. One locates neighboring villages by gaunt sign posts alone. Not a tree is standing. The road runs naked along the level clay ridges, except where a stretch of 90 Helping France battered camouflage flaps in the wind. In the valley beneath are jagged walls and German dugouts, and not a living soul. But the Comtesse can be found, housed in a quarry which served later as a stable for one of her great farms. She is planning another exodus for her villagers, this time from Normandy to Nampcel. And the American Red Cross, itself back in Compiegne, is helping to make this possible. Onvillera Church (Santerre) inflexions et Croquis sur V Architecture au Pays de France: Georges Wybo. Hachette et Cie., Paris. CHAPTER VIII DIRECT INTERVENTION THE problems of the Somme were more complex than those of the Oise. In the first place, its liberated territory was divided between two armies of occupation; the west- ern lines being held by the British, and the eastern lines by the French. It was naturally divided also into two broad economic sections, corresponding roughly to the two areas occu- pied by them; the manufacturing cities and 91 92 Helping France dependencies of the north, and the plain of the Santerre, par excellence, the granary of France. In the autumn of 1917, the latter had been devastated, the former had not. Two dele- gates were therefore assigned to the Somme, one located in Amiens, the capital of the de- partment, and the other at Ham, the one having charge of the undevastated, and the other of the devastated area. In both places were worked out some of the variations to the Belgian scheme of relief which had been so closely adhered to in the Oise. These hinged on the direct employment of American Red Cross personnel. In the ter- ritory controlled from Ham four experiments of this type were started: (1) Actual repair work by a Red Cross reconstruction unit in five villages near Nesle, (2) Reconstruction and rehabilitation by Friends' Units at Gruny and Ham, to which in point of accessibility rather than to the Oise, belonged also the agricultural group at Golancourt, (3) Rehabil- itation by a woman's college unit, that of Direct Intervention 93 Smith College, in the villages centering about Grecourt, and (4) A civilian hospital in charge of an American Red Cross doctor at Nesle. In the Somme, then, came into play the three main bureaus of the Department of Civilian Affairs, those concerned with reconstruction, with rehabilitation and with public health. Yet these experiments were considered at the time not so much a departure as a logical result of cooperation. It was after important conferences with the French Government and in the place selected by it that a modest be- ginning in reconstruction was made. It was in accordance with a far-reaching agreement with the Friends that they entered the field under Red Cross auspices; it was in an effort to use the enthusiasm of the women's colleges of America that the policy of college units was approved, and it was at the actual request of the French Government and the agent of the French Red Cross there that the civilian hospital was established at Nesle. As a matter of fact, the hospital cannot be con- 94 Helping France sidered a new departure, doctors, nurses and medicines having been from the first one of the most important contributions of America to France. The hospital at Nesle was, how- ever, the first civilian hospital opened by the American Red Cross in the devastated area. The revival of agriculture, primarily, was made the basis of French government relief. It was in order to produce food that the cul- tivator was allowed to remain on, or assisted by the Government to return to, his farm. The angle of America on this problem is well put in a Red Cross report already quoted from: "Idle land in France means an extra burden on tonnage from America. Idle land in France means more soldiers, more food- stuffs, more ammunition from the United States of America. ... At least one man in our organization has asked: 'How many ounces of bread is a brick worth?" There came a new slogan into Red Cross activity: " Housing follows the plow." I In that part of Picardy now designated as Direct Intervention 95 the Somme, large farms, even in the American sense of the word, were the rule. For in- stance, in Croix-Molineaux, one of the vil- lages selected for repair, there were farms varying from 500 acres, 300 acres, 200 acres, down to twelve acres. As a rule, the farm buildings hereabouts cluster in villages, owing to two causes, first, protection — an idea dating from feudal times — and secondly, the high value of land. The structure of each manage reflects these two principles; economy of space, and security. Despite its one story of height, necessitated by the soft brick, or clay wattling of which it is made, it is compactly built around a central court, this court con- taining the most coveted possession of the farmer, his piles of manure. Opening di- rectly from the street, and usually through the barn, is the arched gateway, wide enough and high enough to receive the harvest wains. Not only is the barn the first, it is the largest building of the enclosure and serves as both grange and threshing floor. On either wing 96 Helping France of it are built the stables, the rabbit hutches, the hen houses — all of brick — without which a farm in Picardy would not be a farm. Oppo- site the great gate, and forming the back wall of the rectangle, is the farmer's house. From this coign of vantage, he surveys and guards his domain. "When the wheat has entered, when the gate is closed, the house is entirely shut, and the street appears blind. In each direction extends a long line of blank, monot- onous walls, giving to the village an aspect silent and dead. One can see that every- thing is designed for the convenience of farm labor. Nothing is sacrificed to the comfort of the owner, for whom his house, as well as his field, is an implement of toil. It exemplifies a form of life very ancient, since in the enact- ments of the thirteenth century one finds the Picard farm described as it stands to-day. It is a manner of life adapted for all time to these fertile lands which for twenty centuries the plow has turned without hindrance, and where France, in the critical hours of her his- Direct Intervention 97 tory, has been able to count on the greatest of her strength.' 5 * In villages such as this, at Croix-Molineaux, Matigny and "Y" the American Red Cross began temporary repairs, first of the houses, then of the barns, and finally, of the schools. Their lumber they drew from two sources, the French Government through what was famil- iarly called the Moroccan Camp at Nesle, and the Red Cross itself through its warehouse at Ham. Their gang of workmen they recruited themselves among civilians, subject, of course, to the limitations imposed by military service. On the advice of the French architect who made the survey and later became an asso- ciate head of the bureau, and in accordance with the policy of the French Government, these repairs were made against a future in- demnity of war. That is, each farmer whose roof was patched, or whose windows were set in, in case these repairs were of a per- manent nature, understood that he would *Paul L6on: La Renaissance des Euines. 98 Helping France eventually pay for them from the sum allowed him by the government to cover his loss. Naturally, work was hampered by many ob- stacles; the difficulty of obtaining efficient labor, and the limited supply of material, par- ticularly lumber. The needs of the army came first, always; and the needs of individ- uals and of private contractors had equal claims with the Red Cross on the lumber turned out by the government at the Moroc- can camp. The taking over of the French lines in the Somme by the British in January, 1918, caused other difficulties, owing to dif- ferent regulations in regard to civilian opera- tions behind the lines. Nevertheless, prog- ress was made, and by the end of Jan- uary, 1918, forty farms had been repaired, twenty-seven of them completely, according to the specifications. At this time, a force of thirty men was being employed. By March, two more villages in the neighborhood were in process of renovation, and one hun- dred houses in all had been repaired. Direct Intervention 99 Near neighbors to this group of villages were those of the Friends, whom it will not be out of place to consider here as an integral part of the American Red Cross. At Gruny, near Roye, was located a company of fifteen work- ers, who undertook repairs of houses for four villages assigned them by the French Gov- ernment. They were allowed to take ma- terials from uninhabited ruins for rebuilding, and did a very substantial piece of work. Working with them was an agricultural unit which plowed, seeded and restocked the farms. At Ham, another construction unit of six worked up toward the St. Quentin front, in the Aisne, erecting demountable houses for the Government. These houses were made at their own factory in the Jura moun- tains. Four such houses, of two or three rooms, were constructed there each week, from lumber requisitioned for them by the Gov- ernment, and the finished product became the property of the Ministry of the Interior. This unit at Ham, largely augmented, went out ioo Helping France later to put up barracks for the nearby vil- lages in the Somme. "While engaged in this work, the Friends lived with the families among the ruins, and by their presence did far more service than can be measured by the buildings they put up. In all, they mounted eighty barracks. i As the construction unit left Ham, another charged with relief work took over its quarters, working from Ham in an assigned area com- prising twelve villages, and in the town itself. The agricultural group at Golancourt has already been mentioned. Like all private agencies who attempted this line of work, their aim was to assist the small holder, the needs of the grands cultivateurs being met by the Government scheme of tractor plows, manned by soldiers. Four hundred tractors were already at work behind the lines, when the Friends made their first survey of the Somme. By spring, with the aid of the British Army, whose agricultural programme was as fully developed as the French, 28,000 Direct Intervention 101 acres had been thus plowed in the depart- ment. But, naturally, wholesale plowing could not be done in kitchen gardens, or fields of small acreage. To meet the needs of these petty farmers, whose aggregate holdings were quite as important as those of the landed estates, the Friends had horses, plows and personnel. They were stocking their farms also with chickens and rabbits, to breed them for the countryside. The work of the Friends' agricultural and constructive centers dovetailed with that of the Smith College Relief Unit, for they came into the villages of Hombleux and Esmery- Hallon, assigned to the latter, to put up bar- racks. This Smith College Unit was pri- marily a rehabilitation unit, the first to be sent out by a woman's college to France. It received its assignment of villages through the American Fund for French Wounded, and worked as a part of the French Service de Sante until transferred to the American Red Cross in February, 1918. 102 Helping France Its personnel of sixteen members covered sixteen villages, or a territory of thirty-six square miles. Its method, in general, was to give outright the larger necessities, such as furniture, bedding and stoves, but to sell at a low cost smaller articles, such as clothing, kitchen utensils, and soap. Live stock also was sold, for the reason that what was paid for was appreciated and cared for by its owner. Milk, too, was sold from a herd of cows, at six cents a quart. And all of these articles were taken by the Unit in their cars through the villages, so that their advent, on stated days, came to be looked forward to. They furnished a neighborhood center of traffic and gossip analogous' to the village fair. Like all the relief agencies they gave out sewing. But the two lines of effort which won the warmest praise from the French authorities for the Unit, were their dispensaries and their activities for children. Two doctors and three nurses' aids made the rounds of the vil- lages weekly, not only holding dispensaries, Direct Intervention 103 but visiting the patients in their homes. Con- ditions needing the attention of the visitors charged with relief, or of those occupied with children, were then noted and acted on. Most of the patients being children, the chil- dren's visitors were the doctor's strong allies. Yet they were careful to identify them- selves unmistakably with their special func- tion, which was to bring happiness to the six hundred children in their charge. These children had survived strange and terrible things; bombardments, deportations, whole- sale destruction, the billetings of hostile troops, with all the incident restrictions upon them, the no less alien appearance of the Brit- ish troops who found them in their still smoking ruins, and told them that they were free. They had, most of them, neither fathers nor elder brothers, since these were either at the front or hostages of war. Without schools, without churches, they had run wild for three and a half years. Such children needed diversion, and for 104 Helping France them play centers were established in every village. Schools, behind the front, were bound to function irregularly, however devoted the teachers. Those unable to attend school were taught; sewing classes were held for the girls and carpentry classes for the boys. A traveling library of a thousand volumes re- joiced the hearts of both young and old. For it must never be forgotten that the French peasantry, however close they live to the soil — possibly because of it — are among the keenest minds in the world. In this respect they are analogous to our own old rural stock which gave us Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln, and our host of country boys who have be- come our self-made men. The emphasis placed on work for children may be judged by the request for the estab- lishing of a Red Cross hospital at Nesle. It was on behalf of the twelve hundred children in Nesle and the surrounding villages that this request was made. The medical situa- tion was typical of that throughout the devas- Direct Intervention 105 tated area. There was an old hospital, under the care of Sisters of Charity, which had been used by the Germans and stripped of every- thing before their retreat. There was one civilian doctor who had literally no instru- ments, no drugs, and no means of convey- ance. There was a military surgeon, who, in addition to his army duties, cared for twenty- five villages. There was a midwife, whose services at this time were little needed, so long had families been separated. A former tuberculosis pavilion, sunny and pleasantly set in a quaint garden, was allotted to the American Red Cross. The staff, consisting of the doctor, a trained nurse, and two nurses' aids, arrived at nightfall, cold and wet. No fire awaited them, but there was promise of future warmth in a white tiled Dutch stove which their predecessor, the Herr Doktor of some German staff, had had built in for his comfort. It was out of repair, as was the plumbing, and the whole place was in need of more than a spring house cleaning. But io6 Helping France it was rapidly put in order, and two wards of twelve beds, white and spotless, made ready for the little patients. The Pavilion Joffre, as it was named, was the only civilian hos- pital within a radius of twenty-five miles. A travel ng dispensary was part of the equip- ment of the hospital, and visited seven out- lying villages. At the suggestion of the Mayor of Voyennes, one of the towns served, it carried a shower bath. Fresh milk, sup- plied by the authorities, and canned milk, by the American Red Cross, was distributed to infants and supplementary feeding given to undernourished children. In brief, the service of the little hospital at Nesle was a home service. Its staff physi- cians add their quota of testimony to the character of the people they were privileged to help. Though large families in this section are the rule and though the able-bodied and the bread winners were absent, there was no thought of putting the waifs and strays of war into institutions. Individual families in Direct Intervention 107 the communes took the orphans into their already crowded hovels, fed and clothed and cared for them. The war, which had leveled their homes, had leveled them in a common misfortune. And as one wonders how the old farm buildings, those massive, isolated en- tities of the thirteenth century can be rebuilt, one wonders also if the patriarchal form of life they typify can ever be revived. Has not a new consciousness of solidarity, of neigh- borliness been born, which will outlast the war? 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