transportation and usable lines of communication became unavailable in Belgium; railways not destroyed were reserved for German soldiery; transportation by automobile existed no longer. Canals only are now in requisition and many of these have had to be repaired.

The Comité National has given great credit to the Americans undertaking this difficult task, feeling that all honor is due to the volunteer staff, organized for their energy and tact in carrying out a thankless job. More than a hundred of these American volunteers have worked for the C. R. B. in Belgium this year, half of whom are permanent residents. There have been a few instances of members returning to America and saying things that have made the Commission's work more difficult.

It may prove interesting to know how distribution is made by the Comité National de Secours et d'Alimentation which serves three classes of people: First, the wealthy Belgians who buy food and pay profits. Second, the laborers who have income through work and purchase at the actual cost to the Commission. Third, the million or more helpless poor who must be supplied without recompense. Each class is served alike in the portions they receive.

The entire country, including the northern part of France now held by Germany, has its local relief stations, each with a supervisor and staff. Every applicant is given a weekly ticket entitling him to his portion, this ticket being cancelled daily

as he receives his allowance. In this vast relief we have an object lesson of the greatest charity ever organized in an exigency of war and not unlike an ideal Socialism.

The need is as great to-day as at the outbreak of the war. It is only the contributions of money and clothing that make possible the existence of millions. Those who have contributed-governments of various countries, governors of States, mayors and committees in our cities and towns, and the millers of America-may know that their gifts have touched the spot.

The work of the Commission has been variously subdivided. A prominent division is the system of baby canteens," one or more of which institutions is to be found in each of the large cities of the stricken land. These are provided for children under three years of age, appropriate food and direct medical attendance being assured. Parents are required to bring their children for periodical inspection in order that food may be prepared in accordance with the progress of individual babies. More than one hundred such canteens are in operation, having been inspired originally by one establishment in Brussels started by a society of Belgian ladies known as Les Petites Abeilles (The Little Bees).

Children old enough to attend school are fed in certain sections at the public schools in order that they may have proper nourishment. For older persons, communal committees or benevolent ladies

have established in some centres "economic" restaurants wherein palatable meals are to be had at prices ranging from fifteen to twenty-five centimes.

The clothing establishment at the Commission's headquarters attains to the size and dignity of a great department store. All sorts of articles of raiment-clothes, hats, footwear and blankets as well-are furnished to the needy while the remaking and renovating of garments gives employment at living wages to 15,000 persons. Besides clothing the people of Belgium, this establishment has supplied also Belgian and French refugees in France and has afforded accommodations to the Rockefeller Foundation which has undertaken the care of Belgian refugees in Holland.

Another enterprise of importance is the provision for doctors and pharmacists whose regular incomes have been practically stopped by the war but the need of whose services has been increased by the same cause. Painters, sculptors, musicians and other artists have been provided for by a special fund and arrangements have been formulated for the partial support of the lace industry in which some 50,000 workers, chiefly women, were thrown out of employment. In the instance last named, it was seen that destitution would fall not only upon a peculiar class of female home workers but that the skill of the craft would suffer serious deterioration. Some lace already has been exported under these auspices to foreign markets.

Provisions have been made also for rehabilitating

churches, assisting the clergy, helping impoverished foreigners, and caring for weak-minded or tuberculous persons, formerly housed by the Belgian gov ernment.

D

V

Refugees in Holland

URING his stop in Holland, Major Winchell wrote a report of his work there in which he said:

"With the fall of Antwerp in October, 1914, a half-million of Belgium's terrified population fled to Holland and England. Stories of privation, hunger and death among these refugees were told to the world at the time. What has become of the refugees after a year's time?

"Soldiers and civilians swarmed over the border, some by land, some by canal and river boats and many by swimming. Household goods and other property left behind, the majority came with little to provide for their livelihood. Thousands brought money with them, some enough to keep themselves going without outside aid for a long time, while others had enough only for a few weeks. Many thousands, especially the business men and those with property interests, returned to Belgium to reside and resume business. The German authorities were anxious to maintain normal conditions.

"To the Dutch authorities the influx of Belgians was a complex problem, for in normal times this