DR TRUBY KING VISITS THE RED CROSS IN PARIS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3384, 22 January 1919, Page 31 (Supplement)

DR TRUBY KING VISITS THE RED CROSS IN PARIS.

Extracts from letters received from Dr Trilby King relative to a visit to the American Red Cross in Paris were included in the corespondence read at the meeting; of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children yesterday. In one of these Dr King wrote : "Another American with whom I am on very intimate terms is Dr Palmer Lucas, Professor of Pediatrics at California Universitv. He is in a position of great prom-

inence and power in France, being plenipotentiary for the American Red Gross Fund as affecting mother and child in the distressed areas. His power and resources are amazing. They say here that he can have anything he wants in the way of money from America; that all he has to do is to write a letter saying he wants a hospital and doctors and a staff of nurses and they eventuate as a matter of course. He confirmed this when I met him." Later, Dr King visited the headquarters of the American Red Cross in Paris, which i% established in one of the two great official palaces fronting the Place de la Concorde,

and wrote of his visit as follows:—" Dr Lucas not only welcomed me at the Red Cross, but he and his staff quite overwhelmed me with their great friendship and kindness. Several members of the staff came up to remind me that they had met me at some function, dinner, or ad!ress in America. What Dr Lucas wanted to know first was: How many days can vou give us?' 1 arrived in Pans on Monday morning and had to lecture in Crewe on the following Saturday afternoon, and I wanted to visit the New Zealand front wherever it w*as, somewhere eastwards of between Amiens and Arras. This meant

I only two days in Paris, but they made I these two of the fullest days I have ever had, and intensely interesting and stimulat- ! ing. It would be impossible to give de- ' tails. Their motor cars whisked us" to ! various infant welfare centres they have i established in Paris, and .to one about 12 miles out from the centre, in going to which we passed the periphery at Ville Imf. This Croix Rouge Americaine jS the happiest, most united, and enthusiastic band of workers I have come across on this side of the world, and they seemed to me like one big family. . . . Of course a war such as this brings to-

gether remarkable groups of people. Dr Knox and Dr Guilee, eminent pediatrista from Baltimore, whom I had met in London recently, and hoped to forgather with again, were on their way back to America; but others, equally interesting, take their place. Mrs Lucas was in Paris until recently, but is now back in America." In a letter dated October 20, Dr Truby King says: "To-day I am off to France for 10 days, on the invitation of Dr Palmer Lucas and the American Red Cross, to investigate their work all over France and attend their exhibition and conference re infant welfare at Toulouse."