RELIEF WORK.
Feb. 2—It is planned to send a Belgian relief ship with supplies donated wholly by the people of New York State; France facilitates entry of tobacco sent by Americans as gift to French soldiers; organization is formed in New York called the War Relief Clearing House for France and Her Allies to systematize shipment of supplies.
Feb. 3—Russia permits supplies to be sent to captives, but Russian military authorities will do the distributing.
Feb. 4—Steamer Aymeric sails with cargo of food from twelve States for Belgium.
Feb. 5—Russia refuses to permit relief expeditions to minister to German and Austrian prisoners in Siberia; the United States asks that an American doctor be permitted to accompany Red Cross supplies to observe their distribution; American Commission for Relief in Belgium is sending food to some towns and villages of Northern France in hands of the Germans, where the commission's representatives have found distressing conditions.
Feb. 7—New York women plan to equip a lying-in hospital for destitute mothers of Belgium.
Feb. 10—Steamer Great City sails with supplies for the Belgians estimated to be worth $530,000, this being the most valuable cargo yet shipped; the shipment represents gifts from every State, 50,000 persons having contributed; Rockefeller Foundation is negotiating in Rumania for grain for people of Poland.
Feb. 12—American Girls' Aid Society sends apparel to France sufficient to clothe 20,000 persons.
Feb. 13—Otto H. Kahn lends his London residence for the use of soldiers and sailors who have been made blind during the war.
Feb. 14—Rockefeller Foundation reports that the situation in Belgium is without a parallel in history; Commission for Relief announces that it is possible to send money direct from United States to persons in Belgium.
Feb. 16—Queen Mary sends letter of thanks for gifts to the British-American War Relief Committee; American Red Cross sends a large consignment of supplies to Russia and Poland.
Feb. 19—London Times Fund for the sick and wounded passes the $5,000,000 mark, thought in London to be a record for a popular fund; steamer Batiscan sails with donations from thirty States; Red Cross ships seventeen automobile ambulances for various belligerents donated by students of Yale and Harvard.
Feb. 22—Sienkiewicz and Paderewski appeal through Paris newspapers for help for Poland.
Feb. 23—Rockefeller Foundation's report to Industrial Commission shows an expenditure of $1,009,000 on war relief up to Jan. 1; food, not clothes, is Belgium's need, so the Commission for Relief in Belgium announces from London office.
Feb. 24—Plans are made for American children to send a ship to be known as the "Easter Argosy—a Ship of Life and Love" with a cargo for the children of Belgium.
Feb. 25—Queen Alexandra thanks British-American War Relief Committee.
Feb. 26—The American Belgian Relief Fund is now $946,000.
Feb. 27—Doctors and nurses sail to open the French Hospital of New York in France.