The Cordova daily times., 1919-03-27

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 tured. Railway transport did not ex- ist; the returning soldiers struggled along the roads by the thousands, walking for days without food, sleep ing in fields or in shell-ruined houses, making their way back to Italy. Many of them fell by the roadside. AS soon as 1t was possible the Italian govern ment established concentration camps in order to, care for these men. But the care of this unorganized horde was beset with tremendous difficult ties, for peace had not yet come and their army must be cared for first;
 the fighting men must be fed in a land swept as dry and barren as if a plague of locusts had fallen upon it.
 So the American Red Cross had it's opportunity for work in an emergency such as no one had anticipated. In Trieste the situation in regard to the | feeding and housing of the men con- ing back from Austrian prison camps was more desperate than elsewhere, | because Trieste is so entirely cut off except by, boat, and boats were few. Trieste, at the head of the Adriatic, is naturally the city to which most of the returning prisoners would come, and soon they were there by the thou sands. The Italian government placed them in big concentration camp along the magnificent docks which form one of the glories of Trieste. but it was not possible in the disor- ganized state of the railways, in tn ] absence of boats, to obtain sufficient food for the constantly increasing num- bers/ The suffering was intense. There was danger of famine and of pestilence.
 The Italian troops had hardly en- tered Trieste by sea before Captain M. s. Slaughter of Madison, Wis, American Red Cross delegate at Ven ice, had obtained place on boat for supplies, both of medicines and of food, and few hours later he arrived in Trieste, the first American to set his foot there since the beginning of the war. A few hours later the roll ing kitchen of Lieutenant Rogers and l Lieutenant Mcconnell came overland, and it was this kitchen, and the timely arrival of supplies from the British Red Cross, which saved a desperate situation, but for four or five days Rogers kitchen struggled alone to CO., operate with and help the military authorities, who were facing an un- expected situation of extreme gravity
 No one in all the world had fore seen that the collapse of Austria and l Germany would come so quickly But long ago the American Red Cross in l Italy had made preparations for emer- gencys work at the front in expecta- tion of an advance. From all its ware houses throughout Italy food and med ical supplies were taken and centered in the war zone, leaving enough, how ever, in the other districts to keep the work going that had been started when | the American Red Cross came to Italy a year before, which was the care of soldiers children and the care of sol. diers' wives. Motor trucks began a steady procession from the other dis tricts up toward the front, and these were used to follow the army and to organize supply depots in the centers of the redeemed territory.
 | It is remarkable fact that with all this confusion there was established within a few hours system of deter mining the needs of the individuals. Village priests, old men of known re- pute In the community, and some who had held official positions under Ital- ian rule and who remained at their posts when the Austrians came, were called into this service, and lists were
 made in order that the food and the ! clothing might be distributed to the greatest advantage. Young women of the Red Cross eagerly volunteered for | this new service-young women whose war work had been solely in offices in Rome or in other centers suddenly found themselves encamped in half destroyed, ruined towns, destitute of | light or heat or any comforts, and these young women went to their work as if they had been taught by long ex- perience. No one complained of the hardships: no one complained of lack of proper food, of discomfort, nor of I the exposure to disease which each 1 one ran; but every one went al out his or her task with a devotion and en- ergy which accomplished the miracle of feeding several hundred thousand people during the days of confusion 1 before and after the armistice and be- fore steps could be taken to bring aid l through official channels.