The
Stars and Stripes, France, April 5, 1918
The Official Newspaper By and For the Soldiers of the A.E.F.
2,300 AT WORK FOR AMERICAN RED CROSS
Vast Organization Has Entire Charge of Twenty Hospitals in France
CANTEENS CLOSE TO FRONT
Caring for Wounded Only One of Many Colossal Tasks Successfully Undertaken
Two thousand three hundred
persons are working now in the ranks of the American Red Cross in France.
Radiating from a central directing headquarters, a five story building of
offices, itself a monument to the American capability of organization on a huge
scale, they are carrying the sympathy and practical help of the United States
into every corner of the country.
Maintaining tuberculosis sanitariums, operating public
dispensaries and hospitals, finding homes for the children of the districts
invaded by the German, reconstructing buildings damaged by shell and bomb fire,
providing surgical dressings for the wounded, teaching maimed soldiers American
farming methods, distributing food and clothing where it is needed—these are
some of the activities keeping the workers busy.
The Red Cross, administering charity on a scale which a
few years ago would have been inconceivable, is now operating 29 warehouses in
France for the storing and distribution of supplies which are coming in at the
rate of 15,000 tons a month.
Operates Score of Hospitals
It has in service 500 ambulances,
automobiles and camions to bring wounded from the fighting zones. It is
operating 20 hospitals for the wounded and assists in the operation of five
others. It has two factories for the making of hospital splints and artificial
limbs and two establishments for the preparation of surgical dressings. One of
these turns out an average of 183, 770 dressings a week.
In addition to this work of caring for the
wounded in battle, it is operating 12 canteens so near the front that most of
them are occasionally under shell fire. These serve an average of 3,000,000
soldiers a month. There are also six canteens along the French lines of
communication where 88 women workers serve 20,000 soldiers daily, and 13
canteens in and near Paris where permissionnaires are cared for.
In the care of repatriated children and families
made homeless or destitute by the war, notable work also is being done. At
Evian-les-Bains, where French and Belgian children reenter France, 40,000
youngsters have been examined. One thousand of these were treated in Red Cross
civil hospitals and 16,000 received dispensary aid. Homes have been found for
many of these in all parts of France.
Shelters For Children
Twenty-six unfinished apartment houses in Paris are
being completed at the instigation of the Red Cross to provide shelter for
children and other refuges, and in the same connection 76 dispensaries are
operated for the French civil population, as well as big tuberculosis barracks.
All told, the Red Cross is supplying equipment for
nearly 4000 hospitals in France, actually providing half of these with all the
surgical dressings they use. Thirty-seven aid stations have been opened in
various parts of the country and at nine of these lunches are served to children
whose mothers are engaged in war work. Nearly 75,000 articles of clothing have
been distributed and over 30,000 yards of cloth. In addition, huge quantities of
food have been given.
A fund of 5,650,000 francs has been turned over to
General Petain, commander-in-chief of the French Army, for distribution among
sick and disabled soldiers and their families.
The unique undertaking, probably, is the establishment
of an agricultural school. This, covering 500 acres, is a model farm where
American farming experts are giving disabled French soldiers practical lessons
in the best methods of growing food stuffs.
source: The Stars and Stripes Newspaper, France, 05 April
1918
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