, 1917-12-27

"'SS Which, ae even "o "siS
| than the cabled dispatches which we
IeSsaR21aV are accustomed to read under the
1BeF36 vague date line, somewhere IN
@ FRANCE.
Many of these narratives have been
Drought by men ana women VINO, under the aus
pices OF the American Red cross, nave Deen lnVes-
ugatinS conditions created by the invasion of the
Hun. The range of vision of these investigators
extends from the battle front to the cottage hun
oreds of miles away where wars misery-morei in
sidious than bombs on the lighting front-has pene-
trated.
woven together these accounts make a composite
story OF devastation and suffering on the part Of
noncombatants comparable with the torture en-
dured by the soldiers in the trenches of refugees
staring blankly at cratered areas where villages
once hourished; of thousands of children, too
young to understand, crying for mothers who can
not hear their cries of children poisoned by gas
bombs thrown from German mortars; of emaciated
children sent by hundreds from behind the German
line; of crippled soldiers to re-educate and of
civilian men and women to comfort and provide
with the necessaries of nfe-a story of battling
against disease and of the heroism of mercy.
sometimes the cable supplements tales told by
returned travellers. A day or two ago, the war
council of the American Red Cross received n cable
gram from the farls headquarters OF that organiza-
uon containing a simple statement of everyday
occurrence on the French frontier, yet graphic in
It's portrayal OF one phase OF wars frightfulness.
1t read:
The Red Cross at EVian.
"Inere arrived last week at EVAN, where the
repatries from France and Belgium are received
back into France, a train loaded with Belgian chill
dren. There were $50 of them, thin. sickly, alone,
all between ages of four and twelve, children of
men who refused to work for the Germans and of
mothers who let their children go rather than let
them starve. They poured off the train. little ones
cllnging to the Oldest ones, girls all crying, boys
trying to cheer. They had come all the long way
alone. On the platform were the Red Cross work
ers to meet them, doctors and nurses with ambu-
| IpnppS for tha LITTLE sick 0npS pra waiting ont
side the station. The children poured out of the
station marched along the street shouting. Meat.
meat; we are going to nave meat" to the Casino.
where they were given a square meal, the first In
many months. Again ana again, while they ate.
they broke spontaneously into songs in French
against the German songs which they had evidently
learned in secret. The Red Cross doctor examined
them. Their little clawlike hands were significant
of their undernourished bodies, but the doctor said:
We have them in time. A few weeks of proper
feeding and they Will pull up"
Evian is a French resort on Lake Geneva, and
every day one thousand homeless people arrive
there, 60 per cent of whom are children. Thirty
per cent of the older people die the first month
from exhaustion. They were once the occupants
of happy homes in northern France. The Huns
invaded their country, swept on past their homes
and left them behind the enemy's line. The invaders,
now their masters, Impressed them into labor and
transported thousands of them to work in German
fields and factories. Those who are returned by
the thousand daily by train through Switzerland
are all that are left of these men and women and
c~hildren-manhood and womanhood sapped until
the vital spark is almost out and, no longer of use
as German captives, sent back to die or to be
cared for in their helpless condition by their own
people from whom they had been ruthlessly taken
away in their health and strength.
Hope for kaisers Victims.
Thanks to the American Red cross, coming to
the assistance of the overburdened French agen-
cies for mercy, there is hope for these unfortun-
ates BESIDES a hospital and convalescent home
e.. ;I5,o ID Tyiop +bo JSad CrnSS iS nparatinp