Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 199, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1917 — RED CROSS. [ARTICLE]

RED CROSS.

Acting uw the recommendation of the Red Cross Committee on Cooperation, headed by C. A. Coffin, the Red Cross War Council has appropriated $300,000 for relief work in the near east, through the American Committee for the Armenian and Syrian Relief. This is the second appropriation of $300,000 to the Armenian Relief Committee. w Owing to the position taken by the Turkish government, the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief is the only American organisation authorized to carry on any kind of relief activities in the Ottoman Empire. In no theatre of the war have populations experienced greater suffering than in Armenia, Palestine and the Caucasus. The American Committee has been able to carry succor to the stricken people in these territories through the efforts of American, Swiss, Swedish and Danish missionaries. Nearly one hundred of these men are now stationed throughout Asia Minor supervising the distribution of supplies. Three commissioners supervise the work, serving without pay and bearing their own expenses abroad.

One of the main branches of the Committee’s activities, to which the Red Cross is lending its support, is the training of women and children among the refugees to be self-sup-porting. Boys are being taught handicraft and building trades, while many of the women are being supplied with wool and taught how to fashion it into garments for the children. Estimates laid before the Red Cross by the American Committee, show that there are more than two million people in western Asia whose death can be prevented by direct and continued help from America. The care of orphan children is also a difficult problem and their number is estimated to run into the hundred thousands. Ten cents a day per person is the minimum on which life can be sustained in the refugee camps or in the family groups. Since the organization of the committee on October 1, 1915, it has distributed about $3,700,000 in relief work. Practically all of this money has been raised by subscriptions in the United States. James L. Barton is chairman and Charles L. Vickrey is secretary of the committee.