The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1920-04-29
REoccUPYING WAR AREA
Red Cross Commissioner Reports $780,
600 Back in Devastated Regions.

The return to normal conditions in
France is going along so rapidly that
100000 inhabitants of the 100000
who in pre.war days occupied the dew
astated area have returned 10 their
homes and will have the region under
cultivation within a year, according to
the information brought to America
by Lieut. Col Knowlton Mixer of Buf.
falo, Red Cross commissioner to France.
He said similar progress was being
made in Belgium and reconstruction
had gained such an impetus that the
Red Cross relief activities in those two
countries were approaching close.
"In such war centers as Rheims, st,
Quentin. Lens and Chateau Thierry,
between 25 and rs per cent of the or
iginal population are again in their
homes picking up the thread of life
where it was broken off six years ago.
said Lieut.. Col. Mixer, who has spent
Is months in the war-torn sections of
France. Religious services are being
held in the partly restored esthedrals
of Rheims and Noyons. The cheerful
sight of smoke pouring from some Of
the chimneys Of Lille, Roubaix and
other industrial centers in the formerly
occupied area offers hope of q larger
resumption of industrial activity in
comparatively short time"
The Red Cross, he said, supplied
farm implements which enabled thou
sands of French farmers to restore
their farms TO the point where the ne
cessities Of life were being produced,
while the French housewives had been
enabled to keep pace with their hus-
bands in the process of rehabilitation
by the assistance Of American relief
organizations, which have supplied
large numbers Of sewing machines and
much household equipment.
Take, for example, peasant farm
e. whom ! saw from time to time in
the Chemin-des Danes region" said
Col. Mixer. He moved last summer to
the center of the battlefield, where his
property lay, began blowing the land
without attempting TO fill the shell
holes and with his own hands built
four small buildings and a barn with
the scraps OF iron and wood picked up
on the battlefield. He and his family
lived in a German concrete bloekhouse.
When l saw him early in February
he had at least 10 acres under culti-
walton and was operating a small poul-
try farm. His wife still was compelled
to tramp ~ kilometres to the nearest
village and return for certain supplies
which he could not himself produce.
"The children in France are being
dressed in clothes made by American
women French and Belgian mothers
have thanked me with tears in their
ewes for the help so given
-Four hundred barracks salvaged by
the American Red Cross are still DC
cupied BY homeless refugees. and are
being used q. dwellings. schools,
churches. food distribution eenters and
civic centers. The devotion Of nurses
and others who have aided in this work
OF reconstruction Is worthy Of the high
est praise
The Red Cross distributed approx
mately lT0.OOoO00 francs worth of
material At a nominal cost among the
French refugees and farmers last year.
according 20 Col Mixer The needs a
The French people are decreasing and
., has become possible 10 divert sup
pIies u donated material 10 Russia,
Poland and the Baikans.- New York
Tunes.