Relief for Refugees

More than 5,000,000 refugees stumbled from the battlefields of Belgium and France last week, looking despairingly for refuge. U. S. citizens mobilized money, food, clothing, medical supplies, men and women to help them. As the U. S. dug its hands into its pockets, it wondered how long private and voluntary charity would be able to cope with so gigantic and continuing a problem.

Contributions to the American National Red Cross War Relief Fund poured in, but at week's end the total was still far below the minimum $20,000,000 which Chairman Norman H. Davis said he must have. A Red Cross mercy ship, the 6,198-ton freighter McKeesport, loaded supplies, got ready to sail from New York City. Already hard-pressed, the American Friends Service Committee, which began operating in France 16 months ago caring for Spanish refugees, expanded its program, appealed for more funds. The American Volunteer Ambulance Corps, which already has no ambulances in Europe, recruited college men as drivers, sent off a score this week.

More fortunate than the 5,000,000 in France were 723 U. S. refugees who boarded the U. S. Lines' President Roosevelt in Galway, Eire, landed last week in Manhattan. Next day from Genoa the Manhattan brought 1,914 more, prayerfully glad to be safe in the U. S. Italy's declaration of war this week blacked out the last Continental port open to U. S. ships. Only regular passenger route left between the U. S. and Europe was by Clipper to Lisbon. Next week Pan American will up their two-plane-a-week service to three.

To help care for European refugee children, the Foster Parents' Plan for War Children, Inc. has established ten children's colonies in France, housing1,-300. from the ages of 2 to 17. Many a U. S. citizen has become a "foster parent," sending money, writing letters. Wrote one U. S. schoolboy "parent": "Your luck has not been so good as mine, Pierre, but cheer up, your day will come. I am studying French in school and some day when the world is a better place, perhaps when you are a young man, we can meet and look back at the bad days you have been through. I am in bed and as I switch out my lamp from America, I say, 'God bless you.' "

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