THE LITTLE CORNER NEVER CONQUERED The Story of the American Red Cross War Work for Belgium «n^y^^' THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO.. Limited LONDON - BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OP CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO im immwrn'^ P5 fe THE Lli'l'LE CORNER NEVER CONQUERED The Story of the American Red Cross War Work for Belgium By John van Schaick, Jr. Formerly Lieutenant Colonel U. S. Army (Assimilated Rank) Formerly Commissioner to Belgium A. R. C. ^m fork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1922 All rights reserved PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Copyright, 1922, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and printed. Published May, 1922. FERRIS PRINTING COMPANY NEW YORK I dedicate this book to my wife, who went with me to Europe in 1915 for work with the Rocke- feller Foundation War Relief Commission and again in 1917 for work with the American Red Cross. PREFACE Before I left Brussels in April, 1919, I agreed to write the story of the American Bed Cross work for Belgium. Other things prevented until March, 1921, when I got at it. The lapse of time has heen fortunate, as I am convinced that we are past the period when "people do not want to hear anything more about the war." There are some indications of the beginning of a period bound to come when every detail of that stupendous struggle will be read with a deepening interest and a truer perspective. The Commission for Belgium of the American Red Cross was small in comparison with many other Red Cross Commissions. It operated on somewhat different lines. It handled less than five million of the four hundred million dollars raised by the American people through the American Red Cross for war relief. Biit this Commission was set down in one of the most dramatic and picturesque sections of Europe, where a brave people and a heroic King made a last stand to save their country, and where powerful armies of England and rep- resentative divisions of France and the United States fought through to a glorious end. This book tells something of the story of war in Flanders, of life in that part of France which supported Flanders, and of the work of the American Red Cross in helping Belgian hospitals, cheering Belgian soldiers, saving Bel- gian children, and lifting the load of misery which settled down on both refugees and those who refused to fly. I am putting the foreign agencies we used in the fore- front of the story, because the policy of our Commissioner PREFACE was to "put responsibility squarely up to the Belgians for their own job, and to hold ourselves to guiding, cheering and helping with the resources of the United States." No ordinary words are adequate to express the deep respect and abiding admiration which I feel for the American men and women who worked with our British, French and Belgian colleagues in these great tasks. The Americans showed courage, skill and sense. They promoted understanding and good will between different nations and races. Because the toil was mainly their toil and the leader- ship mainly that of our first Commissioner, I feel free to say frankly that the work was work in which the Ameri- can people will take increasing pride as they find out more about it, and that it will stand the test of the most rigid investigation. In the Library of Congress and the National Head- quarters of the American Red Cross in Washington, I have found constant help, without which I could not have done this work. Especially I am indebted to llr. George B. Chadwick and to Mrs. M. S. Fergusson, of the Amer- ican Red Cross, for valuable suggestions. John van Schaick, Jr. Washington, D. C, July 17, 1921. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Red Cross Officers at Bruges .... Frontispiece Facing Page The King and Queen of the Belgians with Prince Leopold at Red Cross Headquarters^ Washington, October 29, 1919 38 Dr. Antoine Depage ........ 62 Col. Ernest P. Bicknell 62 Refugee Mothers Who Made Munitions .... 94 Madame Rolin Hymans Coming Out of the Abri . .112 A Belgian Munition Worker at Le Havre . .142 In the American Red Cross Creche for Belgian Babies at Graville, France 180 In a Home for War Orphans in Brussels .... 224 THE LITTLE CORNER NEVER CONQUERED The Story of the American Red Cross War Work for Belgium THE LITTLE CORNER NEVER CONQUERED CHAPTER I The First Commission to Europe WITH the approval of the United States Government, the War Conneil of the American Eed Cross sent a Commission to Europe in June, 1917. The head of the Commission was Grayson M. P. Murphy, a graduate of West Point, and a successful Kew York banlser, who had shortly before been commissioned as Major in the United States Reserve Corps and placed on General Pershing's staff. He had a record for getting things done quickly in the business world and for making men like him. In war time there is need of getting things done quickly in the relief field, and of making men pull together. The choice of Major Murphy, therefore, was a happy one. Eor the beginning of the Commission to Belgium, we must go back to the S. S. La Touraine of the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique on which the Commission sailed June 2, 1917. On board the project of relief work in Belgium was talked over and plans were made. The War Council had defined a great task and then sent a Commission untrammeled by specific directions. "We are now in the war," they had said in substance. "It will be a year at least before the Government can strike a blow which will count in a military way. Mean- while, in every other way possible, it is necessary for us to cheer our Allies, help their armies and civilian populations. 1 2 THE LITTLE CORNER NEVER CONQUERED and prevent an adverse decision before we get tliere in force. The job of the American Eed Cross is to get to Europe as fast as possible, establish relations v^rith every Allied government, express American sympathy and good will, help lift the burden of war misery and, by sympathy and help, keep up morale." The subsequent history of the Allies and Von Luden- dorff's Memoirs furnish eloquent testimony as to the decisive part played by morale. The conferences on shipboard made us acquainted with one another and with what we had in hand. Among those who sailed with us, not yet of our party, was the late beloved Kalph Preston. He had been in Paris since the outbreak of the war, had helped organize the American Relief Clearing House for French and Belgians, and now was quietly but effectively working to have the American Red Cross start by taking over the offices, staff and good will of this organization. There were also Leeds and Scattergood, American Friends, destined to organize one of the most useful units affiliated with us in war relief work. Among the members of our Commission was Ernest P. Bicknell, former IsTational Director of the American Red Cross, who had been abroad the first year of the war as Director of the Rockefeller Foundation War Relief Com- mission. In one of the conferences on shipboard, Mr. Bicknell described his experiences with this Commission in 1914 and 1915, when he had visited England, Holland, Germany, Austria, Serbia, Bulgaria, Roumania, Switzer- land, France, Italy and Belgium. He said that the first fetep taken by the American Red Cross in a disaster in any American city was to get into touch with the local authori- ties. Mayor and Common Council, and the local relief agencies, and to cooperate with them, so that in every disaster the relief agencies might be united. He said that the same principle underlay all successful relief work any- where, and that our policy should be to Mork with gov- THE FIRST COMMISSION TO EUROPE 3 ernments of the respective countries and to use existing relief agencies where we could. Another thing Bicknell said to us as we walked the deck put the whole project in a nutshell: "Every relief job has three sides. If you fail in any of them your whole job will be a failure: (1) Purchase of supplies, (2) Transportation, and (3) Distribution." In other words, "You have to get your wheat, carry it, and distribute it." "Each one of these phases of the job calls for an organi- zation highly specialized. For the first you need people who can raise money, and go into the markets and spend it wisely. Eor the second you need trained transportation men and the cooperation of armies and governments. Eor the third you need men of unusual balance, speed, cour- age and tact to help people without harming and without offending." Every day Major Murphy said either to a group or to individual members of the party: "We are relief forces and not combat forces, but the first duty of the American Ked Cross is to help win the war. We have to remember that these people over there are very tired and very sensi- tive. I want you to pocket your pride and not get into arguments. "If a Red Cross man is high and mighty with a single hotel waiter, he will hurt the whole Eed Cross. "Eemember that these people who have been doing relief work in Europe since the beginning of the war know a lot more about it than we do. Play the game with them. "Any man who can't handle himself in French in three months enough to do business will be considered an un- desirable member of this party.