CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IN THE WAR
and two pairs of socks, on ten days' notice, just before embarking. Another instance of our being able to answer a hurried call for comforts, was a request from the Navy League for seven sleeveless jackets or sweaters and helmets, for the officers on a British Merchant Marine just arrived at Halifax, and who were recovering from illness. This request came from the Navy League only after trying to secure these comforts from every other Committee supplying comforts for the soldiers. They were then told to try the Christian Scientists, as they seemed to be the only organization prepared to fill such a need after the armistice was signed. The League showed its appreciation of our quick response by dropping a donation in our contribution box. The following day they asked for supplies for two more sick officers, of these ‘splendid vests and helmets,’ and sent another contribution with the messenger who came for them.
“Our branches in Kitchener, London, Hamilton, Windsor and Oshawa helped us in such a splendid way, that our total output of garments, new and secondhand, amounted to approximately eight thousand five hundred, exclusive of our shipments of overseas boxes.”
Just as individual knitting and sewing on this side of the water gave way to the united activity of a great organization like the Comforts Forwarding Committee, so the nature and volume of the work demanded a strong, efficient, and in every sense cooperative organization on the other side. This was supplied by the Comité Français de la Christian Science pour les Secours de Guerre. The arrangement was ideal. Each Committee was in a measure a raison d'être for the other; each the other's incentive. Through the intervention of the Comité Français the French Minister of Commerce and the Minister of Blockade and Liberated Regions, in Paris, granted the necessary license for the landing of thirty tons monthly of our material;
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