Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-08-17
BY n. G. CHOLMELEY-JONE
Director Bureau OF War Risk Insur.
0nCe.

ance.
TIME Campaign of contact
which lies before the bureau
of war risk insurance pre-
sents in it's scope and COM
>Nexities, the most tremendous prob
lem which the bureau has faced.
Yet unless we carry on this cam
paign of contact. unless we person
ally present to each service man his
privileges to retain through life the
insurance which was written up for
him during the war. and the tremen-
dous advantage which is his in that
privilege, we shall have failed in our
bounden duty
In saying that the problem is the
greatest so far attacked by the bu-
reau, ! am not unmindful of the many
magnificent accomplishments of the
bureau in the past. Although l was
overseas with the bureaus organiza-
ton until long after the signing of
the armistice and had no part in the
early difficulties which the bureau
encountered in the problems of hous-
ing. clerical assistance and the huge
to know enough of what had to be
reckoned with to say frankly that
regard it as the most marvellous or
ganization of which 1 have any
knowledge, and the manner in which
it's work went forward little short
of a miracle.
Even so, i reiterate that the present
problem lying before the bureau is
greater than any disposed Of in the
past.
100000, OOO, 900 Insurance.
During the war a total of forty bill
lions worth of insurance was writ
ten up on service men. This insur-
ance was written as wholesale
proposition, so to speak. The prob
lem of conserving it as permanent in
surance presents the staggering task
of personal contact with every man
who has been in the service.
During the war. the Army, the Navy
and the Marine Corps wrote insurance
as the men were indicted into service
Now, with the men demobilized we
have lost this organized means of con-
tact and must appeal to each indi-
vidua1 direct
I recall now the splendid fashion in
which everybody concerned set to
work to prevent any man getting into
action without having, not once but
many times. had offered him the OPP
portunlty for government insurance.
Under the law a period of one
hundred and twenty days was allowed
every man after entry into service
within which he might avail himself
of his insurance privilege The as
sumption. of course, was that under
the system of training adopted no man
would be sent overseas in less pc
Rod of time than one hundred and
twenty days after entry into service.
40 Days Allowed.
Also, period of one hundred and
twenty days was allowed within
which insurance could be applied for
by those in service at the time Of
the laws enactment, october 6, 1917.
At that time there were in the camps
in this country a million and half
men and already in camps in England
and in France we're another quarter
antee that others would be coming.
The campaign which went forward
in the camps here was a magnificent
thing, but it. could not exceed what
we did for the men in France.
Five days after the passage OF the
act a call was sent to all the training
camps in the country for volunteers
of special qualification to serve In the
war risk section.
After three weeks of intensive
training to familiariZe themselves
with the law and its Interpretation
q war risk company of thirty-five
officers and sixty-five men left WASH
ington for New York. whence they
sailed on the Adriatic for Liverpool.
docking on Christmas day, 1917. As
quickly as arrangements could be
made the party proceeded to Paris,
arriving December %. 1t was my
honor and special good fortune to be
one of the officers of that party.
When we arrived in Paris more
than half of the precious 120 days
within which the quarter million then
in foreign camps might be insured
had elapsed. Speed was the great
essential. but even speed, in military
life. must proceed along certain set
channels. A tremendous amount of
detail and Army administration had
to be considered. Also plans for the
field campaign had to be perfected.
On January. the 18th. with just a
month ahead of us, the field party
started out. Two squads crossed to
England and the other scattered
widely over the French front.