Norwich bulletin., 1918-04-16
SMITH COLLEGE UNIT
 WORKING IN PlcARDY,
Nerwieh Alumnae Proud of Wonderful Welfare Service in Devastated
 Northern France.

leading periodical for April gives, al graphic account of the history and l activities of the unit.
 In the devastated region of France that lies southeast of Afniens, between | the famous rivers, the Somme and the Aisne. there are .16 little villages which 1 were occupied by the Germans for three years. Most of them are so l small that one will hardly find them l on any map. Itis there that IS women l from Smith college are working to turn | desolation and famine into health and l happiness.
 The Smith college relief unit, organ {! ized last summer; has seized this mag niflcent opportunity for human se-- young women have been in France, i and the 5000 alumnae and 1.7oo under graduates of Smith college are solidly l behind them in their effort to help the stricken villagers of our ally. As Dear; Ada Comstock said at their farewell luncheon last summer: They went to make a place of homes and fruitful ness" |, To Smith belongs the honor of being pioneer in this relief and reconstruc- ton work which provides chance for college women to combine their trained abilities with their natural instincts i for the relief of suffering. Wellesley l college is planning to send a similar unit this spring. After consultation with the French government, the re- 1 gioE round Grecourt, in the Somme l department was chosen for the work of the Smith unit. Sixteen villages. with a present total population of i 1.200, were chosen, not only on ac- count of their tragic desolation, but ! because they are the center of a very 1 fertile wheat raising district
 Revivina Farming.
 l One of the greatest tasks that the 1 Smith girls found was to supervise and encourage. renewed agriculture in the war-torn fields. Before the Ger mans left Grecourt and the surround ing villages, they had methodically I destroyed or crippled all farming i'm plements. But Yankee foresight had anticipated this, for the Smith girls 1 brought over new harvesting machin- l cry with them. They brought also great quantities of seeds, including many generously donated by Luther Burbank, the famous horticulturist.
 The headquarters of the Smith unit is the ruined estate of the old Chateau l Robecourt, at Grecourt. The chateau l itself was dynamited by the Germans l when they had to. retreat; only the walls and cellar are left. The latter is used as a storehouse. The owner of 1 the estate, the Baronne de Robecourt, l now. over, 50, is at a health resort in tthe Vosges.
 The splendid poplars along the ave- nue leading up to the chateau have been carefully felled. The moat, slimy, green. and stagnant, bears a placard "Bonne a boire!" ("Good to drink''); and on the wall by the big iron en- T -l- | Fine gute gebrannte. Gan" CA well-burst-"). Evidently the Hun who planted the fuses did not quito have time to finish his inscription. The stables gardeners house and out buildings are either roofless or iL great need of repair, but the village church is intact, and in the stabie yard the inhabitants of the hamlet ] (obout 20 in nunber) are now encamp- ed.
 Wonderful Restoration.
 The enemy left very little undam- aged property when they departed from GFecourt, but their efficiency i'll destruction has been matched by q humaner efficiency in constructive ef- fort and the German officers who were | quartered in the chateau might be sur prised if they could see what a hand full of college girls have accomplished. 1 When the girls arrived there was hardly a rain tight roof in all the dis trict. People were living in wet, mai odorous cellars, sometimes 10 or 15 in a cellar. Six portable houses were part of the outfit brought by the unit. These were immediately put to good service. The French government sup | piled three baraques or army barracks for the use of the unit These were put up on the green meadow behind the chateau. Barracks were irlnedi- ateiy erected in the various villages to l house the people who were living 1n tumble-down stables.
 Hospital Service.
 4 hospital and dispensary were fitted up at once in the garage which was the only building in Grecourt
 (except the church) left in good con 'dition. In the first month over 599 treatments were given, consisting ot minor surgery and treatment of sores, skin diseases and ailments due to malnutrition. During the winter there
 was much rheumatism and pneumonia.
 There is a store and supplies com
 mittee, who not only keep a kind of general store in Grecourt, but on cer-
 tain days of the week mount a truck laden with bread, milk, clothes, pots, kettles, shovels, oxes, hoes, ral1es, nails, twine, scrubbiDg brushes, nee rles, thread, etc. which they peddla from village to village. On the very first day they sold 90 francs worth Of small necessities which had been un- procurable for months. A regular milk and bread delivery was established. The unit has six cows of its owr' which were shipped by rail to Nesle, six miles from Grecourt.. The cows | in o thin 9ffn- ihP1T long trip that the girls feared they
 would die on the way, but finally they l, lgot them to the chateau safely. The unit has three trucks of its own. which | it uses to transport milk, bread, tools and supplies of every kind.
 The work is divided into eight de- partrnents: Housing, farming nursing, social, service, medical, records. trans
 portation, store and supplies But this classification by no means exhaust s
 the activities of the unit. Its mem bers were chosen for the variety of helpful service they could render, and the yinclude agriculturists, kinder sartners, a wireless operator, trained social workers, linguists, a carpenter and a con1bler!
 ii St., Matthew's Day Mass.
 One of the finest and most inspiring things the unit has done was the mass which was held in Grecourt church on
 Sept 21st, the feast day of St. Mat thew. the patron saint of this district.
 This was the first church service which
 had been held in Grecourt since the Germans came in August, 1914. ia priest was found to celebrate the mass, the little church was swept and gar nished with field flowers by the village women and children, and St. Matthew s