SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2523, 31 July 1915, Page 11

SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

.WORK OF REPATRIATION,

There is at any: rate one corner_ of France in which the work of reparation has commenced. True to tlieir order and to the example of their fathers in the Franco-Prussian War the Society of Friends are at work alleviating the distress in'that country. The society offered their services to the French Government in October; the offer was at once welcomed, a welcome that has grown ever warmer as the rendered have, been more and more highly appreciated. In a country where all the able-bodied men are necessarily, mobilised, for the purpose of defeating tho enemy there are few people left to busy themselves with tho aftermath of, war, to keep alive the spirit of a countryside that has been finished in the shook of battle. This is what .the • Society of Friends aro endeavouring to do. The department of Marne, Chalons, and the country to the south afld southeast of Chalons, was the first £cene_ of theiiSabours. It is a- country of rolling plains, edged and eaten into by lines of low hills, that, remind one of the Oxford and Berkshire downs; a country of corn and crops, spotted with trees and small woods in which grows, every here and there a pretty village of white houses with red roofs. So it was at leaist up to the beginning of-September, when the war passed that way and crushed the'life out'of field and village. Hand in hand with the building of the huts goes the work of distributing clothes and seeds. ■ Every adult refugee is allowed 1.25 .francs a day .byjthe Government and 50 centimes for every child. But this does not go very far, and must be supplemented if the barest necessities in tho way of clothes and furniture are to be provided. As regards seeds, the French Government has

house, old, enfeebled members of the last generation are dropping listlessly out of the struggle of lire, upstairs a now young France is struggling into the world. May it be strong and nappy for the work that is waiting for it. The present generation lias had its fling, is still having it out there where the guns can be heard every day but fifteen' miles from the hospital; after this war its old ambitions will be but sour grapes. The future rests in the hands of the next generation, tho babes now being-born. Let us pray that wo do not fail in our duty to them. About a hundred 1 members of the society aro at work in France. Tho .great majority of these are voluntary workers; some of them pay all their own expenses, including the journey out; and lodgings are generally either provided by the local authorities, or built in the shape of wooden huts by the society. The great bulk of subscriptions go to helping directly tho mam work—namely, tho revival of a district that has undergone at the hand of our common enemy. TheComte du Sccours National has granted £120 a month in aid of the society. But the work the society is able to do at present is only-a small part of what will be needed; indeed, when the army makes its move forward the work that will bo needed in those districts that have been devastated for so many months will surely be infinitely greater. And .those who help 'the work of this society may know that they are promoting national friendship in its truest form, that of personal friendship, by enabling these English men' and women to go and help the French people in their trouble and make commott work .towards a brighter future.

The word "preface" uaed in the beginning of books was originally a' word of 'welcomo to a meal, and was equivalent to "Much good may it do you."