CAMP WELFARE COMMITTEE
way for our Leader's writings to go overseas in each portable library shipped by the Association. This room at Hoboken at once met a need and was much appreciated by naval officers and men. Here was carried on an increasingly effective and important work, the room becoming not only a veritable haven for hundreds of lonely, homesick men, but a contact point and literature distributing center for the immense overseas forces which soon began to embark at this port.
The New Jersey room was the first organized naval work. The idea developed so rapidly, however, that early in April, 1918, a naval representative was appointed and sent from Boston to secure proper official recognition for Christian Science War Relief Workers and to establish naval work through a distribution of the Monitor on the vessels of the Fleet. The United States Fleet, in war time, is perhaps the most difficult of places for a civilian to gain an entrance. Uncle Sam guards all his property with care, but special precaution is exercised to protect the forces afloat. When the order was issued to mobilize the Fleet, all ship-visiting by non-military persons was strictly prohibited. Even the bases selected for mobilization were inaccessible without authority emanating from the Commander-in-Chief. Civilians were frowned upon and were always objects of suspicion. Thus it may be seen that when the War Relief Committee decided to extend its already well-established Camp Welfare work to the naval arm of the service, it did so, knowing that there is no barrier to Truth.
There was a primary and a secondary base used by the Fleet in home waters, the primary one being secret and located on the York River, off historical York-
145
