Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-02-08

Ohio flood disasters, n OF therl how
chief of the bureau Of refugees III tne
department of civil affairs, at Paris;
tho other the director of the Red
committee visited Venice. Vincenza'
Padua. Verena, Milan, Turin. Genoa,
Modena, Rirnini and Florence In the
north; Naples. Messina. Palermo ana
Catania in the SOUTH spending ten
days on the north trip and five in the
south, inspecting asili. kitchens, lodC'
ings, work rooms; interviewing mem
bers Of the cabinet, projects, mayors,
relief workers. bishops, generals. con.
which, because of oficial duty or
private good will. or both, had been
thrown in contact with the south
bound stream Of fugitives or were
facing with them the immediate prob
lem of taking up the burden of life
in their new surroundings.
A Record in Relief Work.
Perhaps no such mission for human
help has ever see the duplicate OF
this, from the half deserted quays of
Venice to the cluttered tenement
streets of Naples, from the low farms
back of the armed banks of the Piave
to old monasteries turned refugees on
a Sicilian mountain top. But rapid as
the trip was, and picturesque, its dis.
tinction lay in that combination Of in
v~estigation and action on the spot
which has been characteristic Of Red
Cross development in France since
last June. The committee carried with
them ove 5O0,O 600 lire. 1t put sufi-
cient money in the hands Of Consul
Carroll to enable him to contribute in
a large way to the orderly evacuation
of Venice; contributed to the .enlerg-
ent relief fund needed to tide over an
unemployment crisis in Padua, from
which city various industries had been
removed, gave quick help to a desti-
tute mountain folk who had come
down to the neighboring farms; turn
ed over a sufficient sum to the Ameri-
can Red Cross committee in Milan to
enable 1t to work out a general pro-
gram, founded a Red Cross hospital
and health center among the new
Venetian colonies at Rimini; made a
gift to the Italian Red Cross at Cat
ania to enable it to succor refugees
destitute of clothing and bedding in
working funds at Naples and Palermo
to promote better lodgings and en-
ployment for refugees.
On December 8 the committee sub
,nitted its report. giving in brief COM
pass, for the benefit Of the new com
mission; a general survey Of condi-
tons, the urgency of needs scarcely
less bitter than those of the refugees
in transit. and the constructive lines
of work which, on the basis of expe-
rience in France and Belgium, might
stave off and prevent some of those
persisting ills which beset fugitives
even among their own people, OF
these more later.
Military Affairs.
Therc~has been one sweeping chal-
lenge for help in the Italian expert
cnce his fall which had no counter
part when France was invaded in
1914. The French retreat had no such
wrcckage Of hospital equipment. for
such equipment did not exist, nor was
there a great hospital population of
wounded men in the area swept over.
The Italians had put their hospitals
we'll up behind the line, with no
thought OF a break. They managed to
get out many patients-how many is
not stated. Roads were so choked
vehicles, could not take advantage OF
their speed and get away. Stories are
told OF men with leg wounds who
trarnped fifteen kilometres, Of wound
ed men riding astridc the %rctreatine
guns. of an orderly who got a;typhoid
patient out on his back. Nand so on.
But at this date a general idea OF
the supreme effort cxcrtcd by the
Italian Santa Militare and the Italian
Re- Cross to carc for the wounded
back of the new front, and of the need
for unstinted help from America, car
be conveyed only by rough estimates
of the losses in equipment. These are
placed at not less than 100 hospitals
IN two of the principal magazines
of hospital supplies. They lost ali their
first and second line base hospitals in
the sector through which the retreat
ran and about a quarter in the ad.
joining sector. Altogether they, lost
between a third and a half. nearer a
half than a third, Of their medical
equipment in the army zone.
The tenacious italian habit of hold.
ing things in reserve has been the SUBJ
ject of frequent comment in connec.
ton with volcano and earthquake dis