When the first food mission to Poland, making its way in the first week
of January, 1919, with difficulty and discomfort because of the
demoralized transportation conditions, had reached that part of its
journey north of Vienna towards Cracow which brought it into
Czecho-Slovakia, our train halted at a station gaily decorated with
flags and bunting among which the American colors were conspicuous. A
band was playing vigorously something that sounded like the
Star-Spangled Banner, and a group of top-hatted and frock-coated
gentlemen were the front figures in a great crowd that covered the
station platform. I was somewhat dismayed by these evident preparations
for a reception, for we were not coming to try to help Czecho-Slovakia,
but Poland, between which two countries sharp feeling was already
developing in connection with the dispute over the Teschen coal fields.
I told my interpreter, therefore, to hurry off the train and explain the
situation.

He returned with one of the gentlemen of high hat and long coat who
said, in broken French: "Well, anyway, you are the food mission, aren't
you?" I replied, "Yes, but we are going to Warsaw; we are only passing
through your country; we can't do anything for you."

"But," he persisted, "you are the Americans, aren't you?"

"Yes, we are the Americans."

"Well, then, it's all right." And he waved an encouraging hand to the
band, which responded with increased endeavor, while the crowd cheered
and waved the home-made American flags. And we were received and
addressed, and given curious things to drink and a little food--we gave
them in return some Red Cross prisoner packages we carried along for our
own maintenance--and then we were sent on with more cheers and hearty
Godspeeds.

Delay so plainly meant sharper suffering and more deaths that even
before the necessary financial and other arrangements were completed or
even well under way, Hoover had made arrangements with the Secretary of
War by which vessels carrying 135,000 tons of American food were
diverted from French to Mediterranean ports, and with the Grain
Corporation, under authority of the Treasury, by which 145,000 tons
were started for northern European ports. Thus by the time arrangements
had been made for financing the shipments and for internal
transportation and safe control and fair distribution, the food cargoes
were already arriving at the nearest available ports. Within a few weeks
from the time the first