Mohave County miner. [volume] (Mineral Park, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1882-1918, 1917-04-21
SPANISH KING ASSISTS in
LOCATING MISSING WARRIORS

addressed to the King of Spain. 1t
was delivered at the royal palace to
the kings personal secretary, Senior
Don Emiio-Maria de Torres, minister
plenipotentiary, who after reading it
passed it to the representative of the
Associated Press, who CHANGED to be
present.
The cablegram said: "Our son en-
listed as aviator in British Royal Fly
ing Squadron. He was last seen fly
ing over English channel on December
A last. Since then nothing known of
him, and he is officially reported to be
missing. An agonized mother and ia
Their appeal to your majesty to obtain
information and relieve their terrible
suspense"
Senior de Torres at once set in mo-
ton the machinery of investigation
through the Spanish embassy at Ber-
lin. This was a 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
humanitarian works created by the
war.
Judged by results alone the vast
ness of the work is apparent; 100000
cases traced, of which 100000 are dis
posed of and $4,000 still under inves-
tigation. A great number of soldiers,
reported missing" have been located
alive and in prison camps, and thus
the agony of suspense has been re
moved from thousands of homes. In
a much larger number of cases, I'M
fortunately, the inquiry has estab-
Hshed the death of the missing soldier,
while in a still greater number Of
cases no trace of the missing has been
found.
Besides this, 10000 civilians in the
invaded sections of Belgium and
France have been located for their
families; $4,000 seriously wounded
have been brought back through the
kings intercession; forty-four pardOns
have been granted, of which nearly
twenty were death sentences, mostly
of women accused of being spies. 1t
is probable Edith Caven, the famous
English nurse executed at Brussels,
would have been saved had there been
time to carry out the kings efforts.
1t 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 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 sim
picity, and with doubt as to how they
should address a king. But the sim
plcity of the appeals have only slim
ulated the eanestness of the kings
efforts. He has organized this extern
sive system of search here in the pal
ace, 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, including 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 Senior de Tore an oppor-
tunity was given to 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
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 col
ors, Austrians and Hungarians, Bull
garians and Turks, as well as Entente
allies. Each card records a brief his
tory of the case. Special devices pro-
trude above the cards to signal any
notable result. A small black rib
bon 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
dren are arranged alphabetically in
huge cases and constitute the most
touching feature of the work. Glanc-
ing among these appeals one could
see the agony each one had for some
stricken home. One French mother