The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-31
SEND DELEGATION AMERICAN LEGION
 ID VISIT FRANCE
Invited By President Miller and to Go In August and Will Represent Section
 of United States
cy Assnc,ntsd Pres.

New York, July 30.-The 250 mem pers of the American Legion, who will visit France in August. and Sep tember al the invitation of President Millerand. will represent every sec ton of the United States and all arms of the fighting forces in the war. Every state will have its quota, and if possible every combat division will have representation, says an an- nouncement by the legion.
 A fiNed quota, based on legion membership, has been allotted to each state. Not all who have asked to be included can so. but it is the purpose of Franklin D'Olier, the for mer national commander of the legion, who Is In charge of the pil- grimage, to make the party "a cross section of our former fighting forces" Selection of the members is in the hands of the state organiza- tions of the legion.
 Details of the tour in France which have just been made publica show that the Americans will visit again the principal American battlefelds attend various dedicatory ceremonies and will be entertained at numerous receptions.
 The party will sail aboard the steamer George Washington on Au- gust 3, and will return about the middle of September. The principal events of the visit will be the dedi- cation at Flirey Of a monument to the American army, which is the gift of the French municipality and the people of Lorraine; and the laying of the corner stone of the new bridge Font Roosevelt" over the Marne at Chateau Thierry,
 Big Officials on Hand
 President Ml1erand, Premier Bri- and and the marshals of France are expected to be present at the cere- monies at Flirey Flirey is familiar ground to the A. E. F. It is situated in the old Touf sector which ethe American troops took over in 1917. The village itself is only 2,000 yards from the old front line of the sector which was held at one time or an. other by F American divisions.
 Another reception of note to the Americans will be by the little town of St. Die, in the old Duneville sec tor, also long held by Americans St Dies claim to special attention in light of the legion visit rests on the fact that in St. Die stands the house in which the continent of America received its name. It is the one
  Alsatian monk. when he wrote the letter suggesting that the new world take the name of the Italian navi- gator, Amerigo Vespucci.
 Marshal Foch will be lat home" to the visiting legionnaires.' He will receive them in the house in which he was born in the town of Taubes. in the Pyrenees mountains.
 There will be receptions to the pil- grims at Paris. Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lyon, Metz and Strasbourg. At Yer dun the party will sleep in the fa- nous citadel.
 At Rreims the veterans will at tend the presentation of the 3,000,0o0- franc gift of the Carnegie foundation to the city library there At Blois, St Jeanne D'Arc will be honored. The legionnaries will witness the ded- ication of a statue to the French he- roine which is the gift of the Joan of Arc committee of New York.
 Under the terms by which the legion accepted the hospitality of the French government the expenses of the expedition will be borne by the delegates themselves or by the legion organization
 A Former Ally
 MT. D'Olier says that the proposal for t,.e visit has been received with such enthusiasm by the American veterans as to constitute striking and spontaneous tribute to France as former ally.
 "The American veterans feel that the forthcoming expedition marks the entrance of the legion on the stage of international affairs, and that 1t will tend to knit more closely mu- tual understanding among veterans. not only of France and the United States, but of all allied countries, he said. Tt shows that in the hearts of Americans who wore the uniform there surely dwells an abiding affec- tion for France and the poiiu. It IS noteworthy that many applications come from men who did not see for Aior sarx-ica during the war"