HANDS ACROSS THE SEA
destroyed by the invader; to eke out an income which was supporting ten persons, and so on indefinitely.
This brings us in our story to the eventful year 1918, when the Paris churches asked The Mother Church to send workers to meet the growing number of calls for help from the Americans who were coming overseas, and also to help organize more efficient relief in the terribly desolated and devastated districts of France.
Early in the year a delegate was sent over by The Mother Church to investigate conditions and to make a report to the Directors as to the best way of cooperating with the War Relief Committee already operating in Paris, in order to help both the American troops and the refugees. The visit of this representative, accompanied by a worker who remained permanently in France, strengthened and helped the Paris workers at a most difficult time. Immediately upon his return ten workers were sent to France by the Christian Science Board of Directors of The Mother Church. They arrived in Paris during one of the most critical periods of the war, when the city was being bombarded by day by “Big Bertha” and by night by the German “Gothas,” which visited the city as often as five times in one week. The Germans were also advancing so rapidly on Paris that it was felt that something should be done at once to enable the congregations of both the Paris churches to leave the city if they so desired.
The Manager of the War Relief Committee met the Comité Français and they discussed the question fully, with the result that 5000 francs were immediately advanced to each church to be used by the
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