Norwich bulletin., 1917-06-22
STORIES OF THE WAR
Tracing the Missing.

I
 1 A cable despatch came from Arneri-
 ca today addressed to the king of
 Spain. It was delivered at the royal palace to the kings personal secre- tary, Senor Don Emilio--Maria de
 Torres. minister plenipotentiary. says lcorrespcndence of the Associated Press
 The cabIegram said: Our son en- listed as aviator in British Royal Fly 1 ing Squadron. He was last seen fly ing over English channel on Decem- Der 4, last. Since then nothing known Of him and he is officially reported as missing. An agonized mother and fla ther appeal to Your Majesty to obtain information and relieve their terrible suspense"
 Senor de Torres at once set in mo- tion the machinery of investigation through the Spanish embassy at Der lin. This was a typical. case. one among more than 0,005. which are being investigated under the personal direction of King Alfonso, and which constitute one of the most stupendous Humanitarian works created by the war.
 Judged by results alone the vastness Of the work is apparent; 100000 cases traced, of which 15O.0O0 are disposed of and 50,000 still under investigation. great number of soldiers. reported "missing," have been located alive and in prison camps and thus the agony of suspense has been removed from thousands of homes. In q much larger number of cases. unfortunately. the inquiry has established the death of the missing soldier, while in a still greater number of cases no trace of the missing has been found.
 Besides this, 30,o0o civilians in the invaded sections of Belgium and France have been located for their families 5000 seriously wounded have been brought back through the kings intercession; forty-four pardons have been granted, of which nearly twenty were death sentenced. mostly of wom en accused of being spies. It is prob able Edith Caver, the famous English nurse executed at Brussels, would have been saved had ther1 been time to carry out the kings efforts
 It is not only a vast work. but is probably deals with more individual tragedies and more human emotions than any branch of activity created by the war. Pouring in here to the pal- ace, by cable, telegraph and letter, are the pleas of mothers for lost sons, wives for lost husbands, and children for lost fathers and brothers. Each tells a story of terrible suspense. Most of the appeals are from poor people who write with touching simplicity. and with doubt as to how they should address king. But the simplicity of the appeals has only stimulated the earnestness of the kings efforts. He mas organized th1S extensive system Of search here in the palace, alongside the royal apartments, where he can come and go frequently to see the work as it progresses and personally direct some inquiry of pressing urgency. 4 dozen large chambers looking out on the royal courtyard are devoted to the work, with scores of officials, includ- ing some of the titled women of Spain and of the orders Of the Assumption and the Sacred Heart, who devote all their time to this humane work. Un-
 der escore of Senor de Torres an op- portunity was give nto see the system in operation.
 Long lines of records contain the thousands of cases, classified and in dexed. so that any case can be traced in a moment. Each nationality has a different colored card-blue for the English, yellow for the French, green for the Italians, etc. Both sides of the war are represented in these colors, Austrians and Hungarians, Bulgarians and Turks, as well as entente allies. Each card records brief history of the case. Special devices protrude above the cards to signal any notable result. A small black ribbon above a card indicates death. There were many of these black badges indicat- ing. the sweep of death. The number