HANDS ACROSS THE SEA
“The Mayor seemed appreciative and keenly sensitive to the relationship established between his office and this Depot through this gift. He controlled his emotions with some difficulty, his eyes filled with tears and his feelings seemed to be deeply moved.”
Such a careful survey of the needs of the town was made by the Mayor and so much good work was accomplished that the Committee felt it right to grant an additional 2500 francs to this Depot.
That the motive animating our relief work was understood in some measure is evident from the following, which appeared in a newspaper of November 10, 1918, called L'Aisne.
“It is not by almsgiving in the name of their religion so widely spread in America, that they seek to aid the victims of the war. It is rather by placing in each man's hand an instrument by which he can overcome evil and so eventually efface all trace of calamity, including war.
“Is there any more beautiful religion than the overcoming of evil? Science, allied with this noble idea of Christianity, which for centuries has taken root in the world, becomes a means of uplifting the individual and his family both mate- rially and morally.
“The wounds to be healed are innumerable. Universal brotherhood which is the basis of the doctrine of Christian Science finds its work here. The motive of the Christian Science War Relief Fund is to put into the hands of persons in distress the means of re-creating by their own efforts an independent position.”
From June, 1918, onwards, the work of the Comité Français has tended more and more towards helping the inhabitants of the devastated regions. The swift advance, followed by the swifter retreat of the Ger-
57