One War Goes On

Sometimes the fog sweeps in from Narsarssuak Fjord, drowning the Quonset huts of the U.S. airport under a grey sea. Sometimes winds from the towering snow-mantled peaks moan across the glacial delta on which the airstrip is built, setting G.I.nerves on edge. In the pale, brief sunlight and long gloom of Greenland's winter, it does not take much to give a G.I. "cabin fever"-- a disease which becomes acute when the mail is late.

No one can do much about the mail. But in one of the huts, jauntily labeled Ice Cap Inn, three girls of the American Red Cross battle the loneliness and-boredom which breeds cabin fever.They mend G.I. clothes, darn socks, organize skiing and fishing trips with dogged gaiety. They gallantly journey to the isolated outposts for dances. In a country where all native settlements are off limits, where at times even the radio is blotted out by the crackle of northern lights, these Red Cross girls come as close as any one could to spelling home.

Last week, the American Red Cross launched its annual drive. It was asking for $60 million to maintain, among other things, this outlying post in Greenland. It will be needed.

For beyond the usual peacetime expenditures for domestic disaster and sick relief, it has a large budget for foreign relief. Last year the Red Cross spent $2.5 million in Austria alone. This year it has already scheduled distribution of more than $5 million worth of supplies to Rumania and Hungary.

For the G.l.s. But 75% of all the Red Cross spends will go for men in the armed services, for veterans and their families. The post at Narsarssuak Fjord is only one of the 281 clubs, canteens and clubmobiles still maintained by 2,800 Red Cross workers overseas. The Red Cross would like to reduce the total, but military commanders beg them to stay: the self-reliant, battle-hardened G.l.s are gone, and in their place are bewildered youngsters in need of a stabilizing, familiar refuge. To suit the youngsters, the whole recreational program has been changed. Said one director:-"We have had to plan entertainment as we would for children. Even quiz questions have been simplified."

Until U.S. soldiers were all home, until every war victim was fed and clothed, the American Red Cross's war was not over.

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