SOME CASES OF INTEREST:
In order that you may have a slight conception of the far-reaching effect of the strong arm of this Government in giving aid to its ex-service men wherever located, which means that they are scattered all over the earth, I believe that it will serve my purpose if I cite a few cases that may prove of interest to you. I shall with-hold the names of these men and refer to them by numbers only.
CASE NO. 1:
In this case a member of Congress came to the Veterans’ Bureau and stated that he had been excursioned around from department to department in his effort to obtain assistance in coming to the rescue of a boy who had been discharged from the U.S. military service against medical advice, suffering from melancholia, and who was sent to his home at the earnest request of his parents, as it was believed that his return to normalcy would be more quickly effected in the environment of his home and under parental care, than in a hospital. The Congressman went on to relate that after remaining home for about four months, the boy was one day reported missing. Diligent inquiry and searching parties failed to locate him, and a river nearby suggested the possibility of an accident or suicide. We will drop the curtain on this distressing situation, for we know by the law of the universal heart of the suffering that must have followed in that afflicted home.
LOCATED IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA:
After a lapse of fourteen months a letter was received from Sydney, Australia, addressed to a small town in a Southern State, signed by the Christian name of the writer, Henry, we will call him. The letter was a rambling, disconnected communication, addressed to no one, not even to the Postmaster, but simply to the town. The Postmaster, being the self-appointed recipient of the Communication, incidentally mentioned it to the father of the missing boy. The father did not associate the letter in any way with his lost son, but that evening upon returning home, he told his wife of the letter which the Postmaster had mentioned. I can almost see in your faces now that you have read the sequel to my story, that the mother’s love quickly put the question: “Did you see that letter?” and when the father said, “No”, the mother insisted that the letter must be from her lost boy. A visit to the Postmaster was made immediately, the letter was produced and identified by the mother as having been written by her boy. The letter was then two months old. The Congressman had come to see what could be done as to locating the boy in far away Australia.
Although the distance between the yearning mother and her lost boy was over 12,000 miles, I do not think I am exaggerating when I state that within thirty minutes after learning the facts a cablegram was under the water, requesting that the Consul General at Sydney cause a thorough search to be made in the hospitals and other institutions in the city with a view of finding the boy whose personal description was furnished, and to hospitalize if necessary and cable results. Within two days a reply was received, stating that the boy had been found and placed in a hospital. He has subsequently been returned to the United States, where he is now being cared for as a beneficiary of this Bureau, and I am glad to say that he is progressing satisfactorily. Is it strange that the Congressman and the Bureau should have the gratitude of these parents?
CASE NO. 2.:
A medical officer of the U.S. Army while traveling in Northern Africa stopped over night at a hotel in Algiers and there learned of the presence and illness of a U.S. Ex-service man. This young officer was out of funds and in need of hospitalization. The attention of the Surgeon General of the Army was called to the case, who in turn advised the Veterans’ Bureau of the man’s distress. The State Department was called by telephone and requested to cable the U.S. Consul at Algiers, directing him to give immediate service to this American boy and report action taken, with the result that the boy was promptly cared for and sent by first available transportation to Marseilles, France, where he was hospitalized.
CASE NO. 3.:
This case is that of a navy man whose disappearance was a mystery to his family. The first information as to his location was obtained through the U.S. Veterans’ Bureau, Medical Division, as the result of a telegram received from the Director Medical Services, Department of Soldiers’ Civil Re-Establishment, Ottawa, Canada, which stated that a man had been arrested there as a vagrant; that he was apparently a mental case, and had been in the U.S. Navy. His name was furnished and his identity established through the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery of the Navy. He was promptly hospitalized by the Bureau through the co-operation of the Canadian officials and returned to this country with an attendant, where he is under treatment at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.