have called on the Croix Rouge Americaine to help me," he
said. "They have helped me before; they will help me again. These
Americans--I have never been to America--but they are my friends.
Since they came, they have looked after my babies. Their doctors and
nurses have worked day and night for my suffering people. They are
silent; but they do things. There is love in their hands."

While I was still with him the Red Cross officials arrived. They had
already wired to Paris. Their lorries and ambulances were converging
from all points to meet the emergency. They undertook at once to place
all their transport facilities at his disposal. They had started their
arrangements for the handling of the children. Extra personnel were
being rushed to the spot. There was one unit already in the city. They
had hoped to go nearer to the Front, but on arriving had learnt that
their permission had been cancelled. It was a bit of luck. They could
set to work at once.

I knew this unit and went out to find it. It was composed of American
society girls, who had been protected all their lives from ugliness.
They had sailed from New York with the vaguest ideas of the war
conditions they would encounter; they believed that they were needed
to do a nurse-maid's job for France. Their original purpose was to
found a creche for the babies of women munition-workers. When they
got to Paris they found that such institutions were not wanted. They
at once changed their programme, and asked to be allowed to take
their creche into the army zone and convert it into a hospital for
refugee children. There were interminable delays due to passport
formalities--the delays dragged on for three months. During those
three months they were called on for no sacrifice; they lived just
as comfortably as they had done in New York and, consequently, grew
disgusted. They had sailed for France prepared to give something that
they had never given before, and France did not seem to want it. At
last their passports came; without taking any chances, they got out
of Paris and started for the Front. Their haste was well-timed; no
sooner had they departed than a message arrived, cancelling their
permissions. They had reached the doomed city in which I was at
present, two days before its sentence was pronounced. Within four
hours of their arrival they had had their first experience of being
bombed. Their intention had been to open their hospital in a town
still nearer to th