RELIEF WORK.
March 1—Herbert C. Hoover, Chairman of the American Belgian Relief Committee, issues statement in London that the Germans have scrupulously kept their promise, given in December, not to make further requisitions of foodstuffs in the occupied zone of Belgium for use by the German Army; he says the Germans have never interfered with foodstuffs imported by the commission and that all these foodstuffs have gone to the Belgian civil population; Mr. Hoover further states that "every Belgian is today on a ration from this commission"; every State in the Union contributes to the fund for the Easter Argosy, the ship which it is planned the children of the United States will send with a cargo to Belgium in the name of Princess Marie José, the little daughter of the King and Queen of the Belgians; plans are made for the sending of two ships with cargoes supplied by the people of the State of New York.
March 2—American Red Cross sends large shipments of supplies to Serbia and Germany; four American Red Cross nurses sail for Germany; Serbian Agricultural Relief Committee asks for farming implements.
March 5—Mississippi, Ohio, and Nebraska form organizations to send relief ships; American Red Cross is sending large consignments of supplies to the American Relief Clearing House in Paris.
March 8—Report from London states that it has just become known in Budapest that Countess Széchényi, formerly Miss Gladys Vanderbilt, contracted smallpox while nursing in a Budapest military hospital and has been dangerously ill for a fortnight; a hospital, exclusively for the care of wounded soldiers whose cases require delicate surgical operations, is ready for work at Compiègne under the direction of Dr. Alexis Carrel of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.
March 9—In gratitude for American help, the municipal authorities of Louvain inform the American Commission for Relief in Belgium that, when Louvain is rebuilt, squares or streets will be named Washington, Wilson, and American Nation.
March 11—American Red Cross announces plan to send two units for service with the Belgian Army.
March 12—Philadelphians give $15,000 for establishment of a Philadelphia ward in the American Ambulance Hospital in Paris; other wards bear the names of New York, Providence, New Haven, and Buffalo.
March 14—Letter to the British Red Cross from Sir Thomas Lipton says that typhus is threatening Serbia.
March 16—Mrs. John Hays Hammond, National Chairman of the War Children's Christmas Fund, has received letters from Princess Mary of England, and the Russian Ambassador to the United States, writing in behalf of the Empress of Russia, expressing thanks for the Christmas supplies sent from the United States.
March 17—Mme. Vandervelde, wife of the Belgian Minister of State, has collected nearly $300,000 in the United States for Belgian relief, and plans to sail for Europe in a few days.
March 20—Serbian Legation in London sends appeal to United States for aid for Serbia from the Archbishop of Belgrade.
March 22—General Kamoroff, as special emissary of the Czar, visits the American Hospital in Petrograd and thanks the Americans for their help in caring for Russian wounded.
March 23—Contributions for the Easter Argosy reach $125,000; letter to Belgian Relief Committee brings the thanks of King Albert for American help; American Red Cross sends twenty-seven tons of supplies to Belgian Red Cross.
March 24—General Joffre cables thanks to the Lafayette Fund, which is sending comfort kits to the French soldiers in the trenches.
March 25—American Commission for Relief in Belgium announces that arrangements have been completed for feeding 2,500,000 French in the north of France, behind the German lines; for the past month the commission has fed more than 500,000 French; it is planned that the Easter Argosy will sail on May 1.
March 26—Financial report issued in London by the American Commission for Relief in Belgium states that foodstuffs of a total value of $20,000,000 have been delivered to Belgium since the commission began work, and $19,000,000 worth of foodstuffs is in transit or stored for future shipments; $8,500,000 has been provided by benevolent contributions, and the remaining $30,500,000 through banking arrangements set up by the commission; of the benevolent contributions the United States has provided $4,700,000; United Kingdom, $1,200,000; Canada, $900,000; Australasia, $900,000; clothing which has been distributed is estimated to have been worth an additional $1,000,000; it is announced that Queen Alexandra, as President of the English Red Cross Society, has written an autograph note to Mrs. Whitelaw Reid in London expressing gratitude for the aid given by the American Red Cross.
March 30—The cash collected by the Belgian Relief Fund, New York, now totals $1,004,000, said to be the largest amount ever raised in the United States for relief of distress in a foreign country.