The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-22

us to write her. So her son will learn through the American Red Cross that his mother is quite well and anxious to hear from him direct. No, I've no idea why he didn't give her full address, but we have had great many such cases and have usually succeeded in tracing the people.
 Not long ago, for instance, we heard from Washington that an American sailor who had not heard from his mother for two or three years wanted to learn if
 she was still alive. He gave a street
 number in Kings Cross, London. One of our London visitors went to King l Cross, which, of course, is working Jass district, but soon found that there l was no street of the name mentioned | there. Our worker cudgled her brains
 and remembered. that there was another
 London district of d similar class called
 New Cross" So she wen, to New Cross.
 discovered that there was street there of the name given found the i'd lady. who had moved through shopkeepe. who know her, and thus got the informatiLn that was desired. In another case, in the provinces this time, our local representa-
 tive, another American woman, did not succeed in finding some one about whom information was wanted in America until she had visited the main postoffice there and questioned every single one of the post girls who are employed in delivering letters"
 Finding missing relatives is only one of many unusual forms of activity which keep the members of the London home
 service committee of the American Red
 Cross, whose headquarters are in Hert-
 ford street, Mayfair as busy as Swiss
 bellringer from early morn till dewy
 eve and often as I have seen for my
 self, until the wee, sina' hours" The
 committee was formed originally to see
 to it that the dependents in Great Britain
 of men in the United States army and
 navy got their "allotments,' G. e., the
 proportion of the mems pay that he has
 agreed to allot to them), 1t having been discovered that, in many cases, owing 10
 the mems papers not having gone
 through at Washington, these allotments
 were not being received. As result, some
 of the mothers (most of them in Ireland), and young wives of the men concerned
 were in actual need As case after case of this kind was brought to the attention of the committee, it was necessary to
 build up very considerable organization to deal with them.
 In some of these cases, where the need is urgent ana where months may elapse before the allotments can possibly begin coming from Washington. the committee advances money immediately, inquiries having revealed that the case is genuine. At the outset when the dependents lived outside London, these inquiries were made through the American consuls in the chlef leading English, Scotch and Irish cities. As the work grew, however, the number of investigations to be instituted made IL impossible to trouble Uncle Sam's official representatives with them and visitors were appointed in practically every large center in the United Kingdom, all Of these visitors being American women
 The work has now been going on for up-
 wards of year, in the course of which some hundreds of cases have been dealt with.
 mThe most difficult of the inquiries wa haye to make" said Mrs. Curtis Brown "are those in connection with mothers in Ireland. Most of them, elder lv women whose sons emlgrated to America as mere boys, live in remote districts beyond the ends of the rall- way lines and only to be reached oy Haunting car. In these eases we mostly communicate with the local police and I should like to say how promptly and courteous their assistance always has been The wives of American service men who come to us for assistance in getting their 'a1lotments represent three classes, those whose husbands l emigrated to America before the war and left them behind temporarily. those } whose husbands, Americans by birth, i previously serving in the British army, transferred to their own flag here, and those who have married Americans since the United States forces were quartered in this country
 "In some instances we find these wives of American service men, often with little children. living in dire pow erty in mere novels They have roof over their heads and that's about all you can say. In some cases either the mother or one or more of the children is ill Where it is necessary to find such a family a new home, we do so with as little delay as possible, and make ourselves personally responsible to the new landlord for his rent until the wife begins to get her allotments. Where hospital treatment is neces-
 sary, we arrange for that, too.
 You would be amused at some of our many visitors. One of them. some weeks ago, was a soldier who explained that his baby, although it was eight or nine weeks old. still weighed ex- actly what it did when it was born. The poor mite hardly slept at all, either. and altogether he and his wife were in quite a state about it. We inquired into the infants diet sug- gested changes and arranged for 1t to have some medicine, and the other day
 the soldier came in and announced that
 the baby had gained a couple of pounds
 and was getting as lusty as anything.
 Needless to say, he was delighted.
 Speaking of babies" Mrs. Curtis Brown went on. reminds me that we