Norwich bulletin., 1917-01-26
STORIES OF THE WAR
War Refugees in France.

With nearly 1000, 900 war refugees to be taken care of within her borders, France today has met and solved this problem remarkably.
 While the bulk of these homeless victims of the war come from the invaded and occupied districts of France, no small proportion of them are Belgians and Serbians. All have had the same treatment, and their welfare looked after on the broodest humanitarian lines.
 In as far as possible the refugees have been grouped into little colonies or cities, often a city within a cty, and here they enjoy a sort of a mu- nfcipal life of their own, in which all public services, such as sanitation, ed- ucation and even the providing of la- Dor, are installed and administered by the local French authorities.
 Frances army barracks have proved especially adaptable for the housing CT colonies or cities of refugees. In Europe the term barracks means very much the same as the word fort in America, and indicates the large group of very substantial buildings in which a battalion or regiment of sol diers is housed in peace time.
 With the entire French army at the front, the barracks of peace times are generally empty and many are now serving France doubly well in the housing of her war refugees.
 At Nancy the problem of the war refugees has been solved in an eXcep- tfonally happy manner by the use of sents a little city in itself. In the province of which Nancy is capital there are 30,000 refugees, and each group of regimental buildings is pro- viding homes for about 500 was vic- tims.
 The first effort of the authorities at Nancy in handling this problem was to guard against not only the separa- tion of families, but the separation of neighbors and residents of the same towns and villages. Going through one of the immense regimental dorIni tories, therefore, a visitor will now find all the residents of title farm ing community in a cluster of aparS- mentS by themselves, and always the families with a little apartment of one or two rooms that enables them to keep up their family life united and reasonably private.
 ~ Naturally the bulk of the refugees consist of women and children, as most of the men are in the armies, and fully half the problem is that of the children. In the buildings used or dina.rily by the regiment for library, loungfng room and social purposes, complete graded schools have been es- tablished for the children from four to twelve years of age, the boys and girls, in accordance with the general European system of public schools, being taught in separate classes.
 For the girls over 12 a course in domestic economy is provided, while for the boys over 12 department of manual training. As fast as they be- come sufficiently proficient employ ment is found for them.
 In the department devoted to wood turning and capacity the pupils al- ready are making the chairs, tables, desks and other articles of furniture with which to refurnish their homes and schools later.
 For girls over 12, IS and 14, who have completed the public school course and the courses in domestic economy, work is provided, usually sewing. Their earnings buy little per sona1 luxuries.
 AS France is very much interested in the problem of re-population, spec ia1 rooms are set aside for the women who are about to become mothers and here they are given special training for motherhood.
 might be very lonesome in their iso- room where they spend the day talk brave lot, nearly all with grandsons, if not also with sons at the front
 Naturally the organization for each one Of those cities of refugees includes vast municipal kitchens, hospitals and dinfng-rooms. While it not obliga- tory on the grown people to eat in these it is on the children, for France has found that parents, especially m the hour of common trial, are inclined to be too lenient with their children. All of the little tots ara therefore