WITH THE A. E. F. IN FRANCE
at Camp Dix, New Jersey, and the local Christian Scientists of Paris added their hearty cooperation. The suite of offices in Paris housed several Christian Science activities: the joint Reading Room of the Paris churches, headquarters of the committee administering The Mother Church Relief Fund for France, and in addition, the commodious quarters maintained by the War Relief Committee. These accommodated its clerical force and provided a place in which the literature could be received and sent forth for distribution over Europe. Here also were located reading and lounging rooms for men in the service.
The volume of correspondence which began to pour into the Paris office was tremendous. Parents wrote for news of their sons. The boys wrote requesting literature. The French Depots wrote on matters of administration and the Boston office wrote, forwarding all the requests sent by the various State Committees of the United States.
The branch of work known as the “casualty lists” grew to enormous proportions. These were the names of boys who had been wounded or were in hospitals or who had not been heard from, and were forwarded from Boston to Paris, either by cable or letter, for investigation. The patient, loving effort of the Paris Workers to secure the information which would bring comfort and relief to the anxious ones at home, effort which sometimes involved a long railroad journey and hours of search through endless records, ending, perhaps, in the report that the boy in question had been transferred and the search must begin all over again, represented persistent endeavor worthy of the highest commendation.
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