This day of March, 1945, marks the first general meeting of American Relief for France, Incorporated, the first assembling of its Officers, Directors, and Charter Members with the men and women of its National Advisory Council, and with friends and helpers whose devoted interest and support from day to day and week to week has made possible the work for France in which it is engaged. The necessary restrictions of wartime travel have made it difficult or impossible for many friends, advisors, and workers in other parts of the United States to join as they would have wished in this first annual assemblage. Those who are present must stand, therefore, as spiritual delegates for the friends of France and the participants in the work of French relief throughout the country.

It was in the Year of Liberation, 1944, that the two main national organizations engaged in French relief, the Coordinating Council of French Relief Societies and the Fighting French Relief Committee, were merged into a single organization, American Relief for France. In the previous period, beginning in 1941, and working in either separate or joint operations, these two societies with their chapters, units, and affiliates, had been extending aid in every way possible to the French people. Food and clothing, medical aids and varied comforts were provided to the French prisoners of war during the years when almost the only help they could receive was from America. Medical and surgical equipment, blood plasma, hospital supplies, personal comforts went to the valiant French men and women fighting on the Allied fronts of the world; recreation centers were established for them, both here and abroad. French families in exile, colonial populations cut off from the mother country were supplied with some of the essentials of living. Means were found to alleviate the sufferings of French child victims of the war, sending them food and clothing and fostering their welfare in any territories where they could be reached.

It was thus with a tradition of aiding the French people, whenever and however it was possible during the long years of war and occupation, that American Relief for France came into being. The formation of this unified organization—comprising American societies already engaged in French relief, with representation from international organizations whose programs included work for France—coincided with the battles on French soil which resulted in the liberation of almost the entire country. Hence, American Relief for France found a new oppor-

tunity—that of helping the French people in France itself, of being in direct contact with those so long confined behind a barrier of silent suffering. The needs, however, cumulative throughout the enemy occupation, were now vastly augmented by the very battle of liberation, and the problems confronting the people of France reached such proportions that the aid of the American people must be enlisted with a wider scope and a greater intensity, in order to be of true and timely assistance.

The actual operations of American Relief for France began October 1, 1944. During the last months of that year and the opening ones of 1945, it has extended its field of work so that it now has nearly 300 centers of activity in more than 40 States of the Union, with 2 regional and 6 state organizations as well. Financed through funds provided by the generosity of the people of the United States, both American and French, in response to the annual campaign of the National War Fund, American Relief for France has directed its efforts and expenditures into the following main channels:

1. Purchase of urgently needed clothing for adults and children, baby foods and vitamins, and automotive equipment, for shipment to France.

2. Maintenance of over 200 work groups in different parts of the United States, supplying them with wool and materials for the making of garments to go to France.

3. Receiving and servicing of merchandise—the variety of gifts in kind donated through the different centers throughout the country.

4. Extending aid, hospitality, recreation, friendly services of many kinds, to the 3,000 men in the French Navy and Aviation in this country, and to the many other French service men, including those of the Merchant Marine, who come and go through American ports.

5. Helping the families of Frenchmen in the service.

6. Relief in France itself—maintenance of centers and programs still in operation (where Americans had worked prior to total occupation): feeding, nursing, ambulance work, care of bombed-out populations, community service of all kinds, aid to French artists victimized by the war; sending American personnel to cooperate with the French in meeting outstanding needs. A Director has been appointed to take charge of distribution and activities in France.

During the period beginning October 1, 1944, and extending through this month of March, 1945, American Relief for France has been able to ship a gross weight of approximately 500 tons to France. In addition to these shipments, certain limited purchases of food, clothing and shoes, basic furniture and bed- ding, motorized equipment, have been made abroad, where such supplies were

available, and when this procedure served to expedite immediate relief without being subject to the exigencies of overseas shipping.

Meantime the New York workshop of American Relief for France spends the crowded hours of every day in unpacking, sorting, repairing, repacking stocks for shipment, and the warehouse has thousands of cases ready to go off at each opportunity.

Everything in the way of supplies has been carefully chosen to meet the most pressing needs of France, as reported through the French authorities themselves, and as a result of the intensive survey made by Paul Anderson, temporary representative of American Relief for France abroad.

Gratifying and inspiring reports have been received, acknowledging the help that has already reached the French people. This is of the greatest importance to all of us, for, humanly, we want to know, not only what effort has been made, but just how and when this effort has achieved its ends. Cables and letters from France have told how goods and funds have been received for feeding and clothing people in the regions where hundreds of thousands are homeless, for bringing a few rays of holiday cheer during this past bitter season to families whose lot has been temporarily worsened rather than bettered by liberation. The shipments of American Relief for France have been addressed to the Entr'aide Francaise, central French agency for distributing supplies where the need is greatest. One of the Frenchmen at the head of it recently wrote as follows:

"The friendly attitude of American Relief for France, and the material and financial aid we are receiving from them, will greatly help to save the situation; and we will never be able to thank this organization enough for its generous gesture toward France."

NECESSARILY limited by the exigencies of the world conflict in which both our countries are deeply engaged, the operations of American Relief for France, in particular with reference to shipments abroad, represent but a token of the accomplishments purposed, and believed in, for the future. It is the conviction of American Relief for France that the preservation of France, its people, its institutions and its traditions, is essential to world freedom and world civilization. It is the hope of American Relief for France that the aid brought to this fellow democracy may, in the days to come, be commensurate with the age-old friendship of the American people for the people of France.

## AMERICAN RELIEF FOR FRANCE

### Has Activities in the Following Communities

ALABAMA
Birmingham
Florence
Mobile
Montgomery

ARIZONA
Phoenix
Tucson

CALIFORNIA
Alameda County
Berkeley
Beverly Hills
Long Beach
Los Angeles
Los Gatos
Marin County
Oakland
Pasadena
Sacramento
San Diego
San Francisco

COLORADO
Denver

CONNECTICUT
Bridgewater
Danbury
Greenwich
Hartford
Jewett City
Manchester
Old Lyme
New Canaan
New Haven
New London
Westfield
Putnam
Ridgefield

Stamford
Waterbury
Waukegan
Willimantic
Woodstock

MAINE
Augusta
Hancock
Jackstown Station
South Berwick

MARYLAND
Baltimore
Catonsville

MASSACHUSETTS
Amherst
Andover
Arlington
Beverly
Boston
Cambridge
Chestnut Hill
Chicopee
Cuttymunk
East Northfield
Fall River
Fitchburg
Hingham
Janesville Plain
Lawrence
Leominster
Litchfield
Lynn
Manchester
Milton
Natick
New Bedford
Newton
Northampton
Norton
Pittsfield
Randolph
Salem
South Fitchburg
Springfield
Swampscott

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Washington

FLORIDA
Coral Gables
Ft. Lauderdale
Hollywood
Jamaicaville
Maitland
Port Richy
St. Augustine
Water Park

GEORGIA
Atlanta
Macon
Rome
Savannah
Valdosta

ILLINOIS
Belleville
Decatur
Lake Forest
Rockford

INDIANA
Evansville
Fl. Wayne
Indianapolis
Marion
Terre Haute

IOWA
Dallas Center
Davenport
Des Moines
Grinnell
Iowa City
Lamoni

KANSAS
Lawrence
Topeka
Wichita

KENTUCKY
Auburn
Lexington
Louisville
Painstown

LOUISIANA
Lake Charles
New Orleans
Shreveport

AMERICAN RELIEF FOR FRANCE
INDIANA
Evansville
Fl. Wayne
Indianapolis
Marion
Terre Haute

TOPSFIELD
Wabam
Wakefield
Wellesley
Westfield
Williamstown
Worcester

MICHIGAN
Ann Arbor
Battle Creek
Cedarville
Grand Rapids
Grose Point
Kalamazoo
Lansing
Oscoda
Traverse City

MINNESOTA
Duluth
Minneapolis
Northfield
St. Paul

MISSISSIPPI
Biloxi
Jackson
Keesler Field

MISSOURI
Kansas City
St. Louis
Springfield
University City

NEBRASKA
Crete
Omaha

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord
Hanover
Manchester

NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park
East Orange
Englewood
Franklin
Garwood
Jersey City
Hackettstown
Hillside
Madison
Orange
Perth Amboy
Port Norris
Princeton
Ridgewood
Trenton
Upper Montclair
West Orange

NEW MEXICO
Carlsbad
Santa Fe

NEW YORK
Albany
Aurora-on-Cayuga
Beacon
Bronxville

Buffalo
Clinton Corners
Elmira
Frederille
Glens Falls
Ithaca
Lake Placid
Larchmont
Little Neck, L. I.
Mamaroneck
Albemarle Vernon
New Rochelle
Niagara Falls
Norwich
Ozone Park
Pelham Manor
Poughkeepsie
Richmond Hill, L. I.
Rochester
Brooklyn
Schenectady
Smithtown Branch
Syracuse
Troy
Tupper Lake
Utica
West Point

NORTH CAROLINA
Asheville
Chapel Hill
Durham
Greensboro
Cleveland
West Asheville
Winston-Salem

OHIO
Akron
Alliance
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Columbus
Dayton
Granville
Indian Hill
Kent
Obiohlin
Springfield
Toledo

OKLAHOMA
Tulsa

OREGON
Portland

PENNSYLVANIA
Birmingham
Bristol
Chambersburg
Easton
Galeton
Harrisburg
Hazelton
Lancaster
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Sewickley
Washington
Wellesboro

West Chester
Wilkes-Barre

RHODE ISLAND
Barrington
Newport
Providence
Westerley
Woonsocket

SOUTH CAROLINA
Charleston
Hartsville
Orangeburg

TENNESSEE
Memphis
Nashville

TEXAS
Albene
Austin
Corpus Christi
Ft. Worth
Houston
San Angelo
Wichita Falls

UTAH
Salt Lake City

VERMONT
Brattleboro
Ferrisburg
Miltonbury
North Pomfret
Norwich
S. Woodstock
White River Junction
Wilmington

VIRGINIA
Alexandria
Middleburg
Norfolk
Richmond
Roanoke
Sweet Briar
Woodberry Forest

WASHINGTON
Oroville
Seattle
Spokane
Tacoma
Yakima

WEST VIRGINIA
Bethany
Charleston
Huntington
Wheeling

WISCONSIN
Beloit
East Madison
Madison
Milwaukee

WYOMING
Laramie