Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-09-19
ENGLISH QUAKERs GIVE
VIVID ACCOUNTS OF WAR
Reports Of Society of Friends Tell OF
Destruction and Attempts
mt Reconstruction.
DESPAIR is SUPREME EVIL
This Is What Investigators Find
They Have to Notwithstanding
Implements Distributed in French
Villages on COOPERATIVE System.

LONDON. September 1S.-The re-
ports issued by the English Society OF
Friends on their work in the devas-
a vivid account of the destruction and
tic attempts at reconstruction. Twelve
OF these reports have now been issued,
covering n wide range of territory.
The society begins by sending out in
vestigators. who are usually women
who have been trained In social work.
In accordance with their reports. the
other workers follow. Nurses visit
patients in their own homes. builders
erect huts for the homeless peasants.
and there is growing department Of
agricultural relief. There are four
main divisions of activity. with about
l25 volunteers from England and q
number from other countries.
Imagine" writes one OF the work
ers. n village in your own vicinity
1t may be your home-with some 700
houses. OF which ESQ have been burned
to the ground, and then you will be
able to form some idea of what this
village from which I am writing is
like. The inhabitants left in astound :
ing bewilderment. hardly able to be-
lieve that the German army was so
close. and so in the hurry and scramble
to get away they left everything be-
hind them, innocently expecting to find
their belongings again when they re-
turned And so, when they returned
few days after the German retreat
conceive their sorrow and chagrin on
finding their houses RACED to the
ground and all trace OF their possess
sions gone. All their hay and crops,
n1tt IL hi
destroyed | admire their courage as
see them grubbing in the ruins,
searching for some lost thing, or be-
ginning-where would YOU begin?-to
clear away the debris"
SUPREME EVIL OF WAR
NOT DEATH. hut DESPAIR
Tho secretary OF the relief commit
tee. Miss Ruth Fry. writes: 1T is not
only the material help given. The
most important aspect is the courage
raised anew in these much-tricd suf-
ferers, to whom the coming OF the
helpers is n very Impressive sign OF the
reality OF our friendship. The supreme
evil of war is not death, but despair
Against such despair the Quaker
fights"
At first the medical side of the work
predomnated At Chalons, for in
stance. maternity hospital was or
ganized. The following is from the re-
port of tho work of the hospitals al
though we were foreigners and stranR-
ers TO Madame II. she came away
with us. It was her first baby. Her
husband, n compositor In Rheims be-
fore he was called to the Colors had
been seriously wounded four months
before. and since then she had had no
news at all. She spoke of him during
the long rido back to the hospital and
she told us of the horrors of the bonn
bardment and her six weeks sojourn
in the cellars. She spoke OF the Ger
mans In Rheims. and said they were
very polite and nice to her and to her
friends. One she had met had been
very sad, and had wept over having
TO fight and leave his wife and children
She showed him her husbands picture.
and he wished her good fortune and
his safe return. Her courage WINS
splendid. Just before little daugh.
ter was born to her the news came that
her husband was dead. Her courage
never failed. For my dear girl i want
TO be strong, she said"