Relief

WAR & PEACE

The only way the U. S. can be sure of not having to fight Adolf Hitler is to have Britain beat him first. And the only way Britain can beat Hitler--now that her Allies on land are all defeated--is to starve him out. If winter comes and Britain is still fighting, not only Germans but Poles.

Norwegians, Danes, Dutch, Belgians and French will starve. Then the U. S. will have to face its toughest relief problem: to obey its heart or its head--to help Hitler by feeding Hitler-ruled Europe, or to let Europe starve.

Last week that problem had not yet arisen. Like a cornucopia with a conscience, the U. S. prepared to pour out aid to the victims of war. But never before had U. S. relief had to cope with lightning war. Before a relief fund was raised and a relief ship chartered, the country for which the help was destined might be wiped off the map, the very port to which a relief ship was sent might be in ruins or out-of-bounds in a war zone.

Nevertheless, the American Red Cross set out last week to raise $20,000,000 for war relief (right on the heels of its annual drive, which took in $7,500,000). By week's end the relief fund had reached over $14,000,000. By June 30, the Red Cross hoped to have its quota.

The U. S. as a whole did not think in terms of dollars but in terms of socks. In homes, clubs, churches all over the country, U. S. women made dresses, socks, sweaters for refugees, bandages for soldiers. Training schools opened to teach women how to turn out surgical dressings faster and better.

> In Los Angeles, film society held war relief auctions. In San Francisco Elsa Maxwell gave a party, plugging Foyers du Soldat, incidentally plugging her motion picture The Lady and the Lug. Cinemactresses Constance Bennett, Dolores del Rio, Claudette Colbert were caught by an indiscreet cameraman, sorting old clothes.

> Diva Lily Pons opened her garden at Silvermine, Conn, for the benefit of the Friends of France.

> Countess Barbara Haugwitz-Reventlow, Woolworth heiress, who had already given $10,000 to the Red Cross, gave $100,000 more. Local 151 of the Window Trimmers and Helpers Union of New York City gave $25.

> Over 300 other money-raising outfits collected pennies, dimes, quarters, checks for war relief: Allied Relief Fund, Bundles for Britain, American Friends of France, Queen Wilhelmina Fund, Inc., Foster Parents' Plan for War Children, Le Paquet au Front.

> The British War Relief Society distributed 1,200 stout paper bags labeled B. W. R. S.. containing wool, knitting needles, directions for making sweaters, socks, mittens.

What most touched the hearts of U. S. women last week was the plight of refugee children. In preparation for the Battle of Britain, England prepared to get as many children as possible out of harm's way, as many as possible out of the country. Canada last week awaited a first contingent of 10,000.

A U. S. Committee for the Care of European Children was organized with Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt as honorary chairman. The committee planned to coordinate all resources available in the U. S. for child war victims, cooperate with Canada. Estimate on the number the U. S. could take into homes: 60,000.

But the red tape of law threatened to thwart the U. S. will to help. By present immigration statutes, no alien Briton, however young or pathetic, can legally enter the U. S. without going through the slow mill of the quota, nor (by British law) take more than -L-10 ($36 last week) out of the United Kingdom.

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