V
WITH THE A. E. F. IN FRANCE
In the spring and early summer of 1918, war-weary France had almost reached the limit of its endurance. Its army, with those of its allies, had for weeks been forced backward and ever backward. By late May only the most stout-hearted of those still remaining in the capital felt confident that Paris would escape German occupation, and many feared a far worse fate. Bombarded by day and bombed by night, the Parisian certainly did not lack variety, at least in the round of daily experience.
Into this tense situation at about ten o'clock one evening during the latter part of May there came a party of ten American Christian Scientists. This group had landed at Bordeaux two days previous from the steamer La Lorraine, and constituted a group of authorized workers sent to France to aid in relief work among the French war sufferers and to extend to Christian Scientists in the army and navy such assistance as was considered proper under the military regulations.
This party was chosen in April and, excepting two persons who were unable to reach Boston, assembled in that city early in May, where the members were instructed regarding their work as far as this was possible. They also had the advantage of conferences with the Christian Science Board of Directors and with the representative who had been sent overseas by
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