New Britain herald., 1917-04-27
CLEARING HOUSE FOR
 ALL EUROPE'S WOES
Spain Appealed to by Borrowing
 Mothers and Wives

kings personal secretary, Senor Don Emilio--Maria de Torres, minister plenipotentiary, who after reading 1t, passed it to the representative of The Associated Press who chanced to be present.
 The cablegram said: 'Our son en-
 listed as aviator in British Royal
 Flying Squadron. He was last seen flying over English channel. on De- cember 4. last, Since then nothing
 known of him and he is officially re- ported as missing. An agonized mother and father appeal to your ma
 jesty to obtain information and re-
 lieve their terrible suspense" Senor de Torres at once set in mo- tion the machinery of investigation through the Spanish embassy at Ber- lin. This was typical case, one among more than 100000, which are being investigated under the personal direction of King Alfonso, and which constitute one of the most stupendous l Humanitarian works created by the war.
 Judged by results alone the vastness | of the work is apparent; 200, ,OO0 cases l traced. of which 150,00O are disposed
 of and 5O.O0O still under investiga-
 ton. A great number of soldiers, re- ported missing" have been located
 alive and in prison camps and thus
 the agony of suspense has been re- l moved from thousands of homes In
 8 much larger number of cases, un- fortunately, the inquiry has estab- l lished the death of the missing sol- l dier, while in still greater number
 of cases no trace of the missing has been found.
 . l invaded sections of Belgium and
 France have been located for their
 families, 5000 seriously wounded
 have been granted. of which nearly twenty were death sentences mostly of women accused of being spies It
 is probable Edith Cavell, the famous
 English nurse executed at Brussels. would have been saved had there been time to carry out the kings ef- forts.
 Pleas From tllc Afflicted. It is not only a vast work, but it probably deals with more individual
 tragedies and more human emotions
 than any branch of activity created
 by the war. Pouring in here to the
 palace, by cable, telegraph and let
 ter, are the pleas of mothers for lost
 sons. wives for lost husbands. and
 children for lost fathers and brothers.
 Each tells story of terrible sus-
 pense. Most of the appeals are from
 poor people who write with touching
 sim mplicity and with doubt as to how
 they should address a king. But the
 implicitly of the appeals has only stimulated the earnestness of the kings efforts.- He has organized this 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. A 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 Under escort of Senor de Torres an op- portunity was given to see system in operation. Long lines of records contain the
 thousands of cases, classified and in-
 dexed, so that any case can be traced ir moment. Each nationality has 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 cOsors, Austrians and Hungarians,
 Bulgarians and Turks. as we'll as En-
 tentc Allies. Each card records a
 brief history of the case. Special de-
 vices 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 indicating the sweep of death. The number of aviators who
 have never been traced is also very high.
 The appeals of mothers and chill tllen are arranged alphabetically in huge cases and constitute the most touching feature of the work. Glanc- ing among these appeals one could sec the agony each one had for some stricken home. One French mother wrote the king. II suffer night and day in not know ing what has become of my dear boy and l would prefer, believe, the cer- tainty of his death and of having tomb where I could go to pray. rather than to live in this endless and cruel uncertainty, which consumes me as by a slow fire. It is horrible, MOn-
 sieur the King, for the two brothers
 of this poor boy have already died on the field of honor and if our last son Charles is dead we have no more sons. A weeping mother puts her supreme
 hope in Your Majesty"
 A wife made this simple appeal: | "Seigneur I appeal to your kindness ! for my husband, missing the 27th i, September before Souchez."
 l A little girl wrote this letter: Mon l sjeur. I have the honor to ask some news of my brother. Wc are all in ! agony and my brother is very sick ! and cannot be consoled. Will you 1 give Us news Here Is his address,"