First Church of Christ, Scientist, War Relief Committee

“ The work of the Christian Science War Relief Committee in Nantes, was, of course, largely among those who needed healing. The men in the hospitals who knew something of Christian Science were anxious to have that help, and many others who heard that there were Christian Scientists in the vicinity asked for treatment. Some of the nurses and other workers who were interested in Science encouraged the men to turn to it when all other help seemed to have failed, and again and again in such instances treatment was given and the patient healed. ”

“ As soon as the men began to be aware of the existence of the War Relief Depot our Workers were called upon to send out large quantities of literature and to answer many calls for help. They had also to devote some time to the civilian population for the French themselves began to visit the Rooms, and finding the truth attractive, became regular attendants at the Christian Science services. ”

“ Letters were received daily asking for literature from men in the various barracks and hospitals, and aside from this distribution of Sentinels, Journals, Herauts, pamphlets and Quarterlies, a hundred Monitors were mailed each day to individuals who had asked for them, and to all the relief huts. It was not at all uncommon for officers, not Christian Scientists, to send their orderlies to the Rooms for Monitors, and they often came themselves and asked if they might subscribe for the paper for a month or two.
The soldiers' edition of Science and Health was always in demand. ”

“ The tree, too, to which were given warm clothing, candy bags, and toys for two hundred war orphans, was a complete success, and seemed to add to the impression already abroad that Christian Science was in every way a religion to be commended. As a practical proof of appreciation our War Relief Committee was given the place of honor at the New Year's dinner given by the French to two hundred American officers, and the Workers were put at the table with the colonel in command of the American troops in that district, and other especially distinguished guests. ”

“ Many men were healed while reading Science and Health. One officer who had been told that he was in a very serious condition with heart trouble and that it would be months, perhaps years, before he would be able to go upstairs comfortably, heard of Christian Science through a French boy who had been reading the literature, and sent to the reading room for “the little book.” He was healed after reading for ten days, and called at the Rooms to ask questions and to leave a generous donation to the War Relief Committee. ”

“ Officers passing through the town were very little better off than the men. Hundreds walked the streets, or slept in stations or hallways, unable to find shelter. Transportation and food were lacking, all else being subordinated to the one purpose of getting everything available up to the front.
“Our question as to why Christian Science should be held aloft in Le Mans was very soon answered. The opportunities for healing work increased day by day. New points of contact with the men constantly presented themselves. ”

“ The most important single branch of activity was centered at the vast Motor Transport Park, where hundreds of motor cars and trucks were assembled every day. After the armistice Nantes became a billeting area for troops returning to the United States and, during the winter, men from all branches of the service were stationed there waiting to go home. At one time the personnel of forty-seven American hospital units were awaiting transportation. ”

“ The normal population of Tours was swelled to about 140,000 during the war, by American soldiers and refugees. Tours was established as the headquarters of the Service of Supply for the American army early in 1917. This branch of the army, being as necessary to the pursuance of war as the army of combat, caused Tours to become practically the most important city of France from the viewpoint of the American army. ”

“ There were few requests from civilians in Nantes for literature. Some French people visited the Rooms confessedly out of curiosity and each of these asked for French pamphlets. A few, however, became sincerely interested in Christian Science, bought the books and attended an occasional service; but for the most part they had little desire to “think on these things,” being profoundly concerned with human affairs. ”

“ Having done their work quietly and served their purpose well, without ostentation, many of the men who have been stationed in Le Mans, and others who have passed through here, will long remember the unique place which the organization played in the welfare of the soldier of the United States in France. ”

“ That was the day you got well, John.’ Later, the boy was presented by the Committee with a Bible. He held the book a moment to his face, tenderly caressing it, and quickly slipped it under his pillow. ‘There is nothing,’ said one nurse, ‘which the boys so thoroughly love as a Bible.’ ”
During the influenza epidemic and the last bitter weeks of the war, when the American troops were winning their laurels in the Argonne and at St. Mihiel, all our Paris Workers were busy day and night responding to calls for help. ”

“ After the arrival and location of the second group of ten workers in September, 1918, the manager of the Committee returned to America, and the Paris office was placed in charge of the two Workers who had established the Depot at Tours. Two women practitioners were also added to the personnel of the office. This was necessitated by the constantly growing demand for Christian Science treatment from the men of the A. E. F. A most important work which had been instituted in the early summer, in the hospitals in and about Paris, was now enlarged. ”

“ He borrowed Science and Health, and later became so interested in it that he bought a copy in leather binding. He told the Workers that he had been healed of insomnia by reading the book and that a disease of the heart was also disappearing in the same way. There were also many calls from the American soldiers and our Workers were kept very busy responding to letters, telegrams and messages asking for treatment in Christian Science.
The Brest Depot was one of the last of the Rooms to close as a great number of men passed through the city during the demobilization period. ”

“ The Christian Science Rooms served not only the boys located in the Service of Supply branches of the American army in Nevers (locomotive repair shops, Quartermasters' Corps, railroad men, engineers and labor troops numbering about 25,000) but also the Hospital Centers of Mesves twenty-five miles north, Mars about ten miles south, Pouges les Eaux six miles north, and the Motor Repair shops at Verneuil twenty-five miles east. During the month of October, 1918, there were over 39,000 patients at Mesves, and about 30,000 at Mars and Pouges les Eaux. ”

“ The Workers received many letters and telegrams from boys in distant camps and hospitals, desiring treatment or literature. In some instances they responded in person, traveling sometimes several hundred miles by train or motor in order to give the healing message of Truth, or to render some human service which meant so much to the giver and receiver. ”

“ Christian Science services were held regularly in Romorantin with steadily increasing attendance, until Christmas night which was the concluding service.
Much of the literature distribution from this Depot had to be done by mail on account of the large territory served. The Soldiers' Distribution Committee supplied large quantities of Monitors to the camps and all the Y. M. C. A. huts were well taken care of and were glad to have our literature. The hospitals in the area likewise were most appreciative of reading matter.
Our Worker received calls for help from boys in all the outlying camps. ”

“ The Monitor was placed in the wards of the big hospital, the Commanding Officer saying that he was delighted to have it, and the head nurse, who has a copy of Science and Health and attends our services, took charge of its distribution. Bundles of Monitors were tied up and placed on the piano in our room, so that a man coming in could help himself. ”

“ The enforced idleness into which the men were plunged after the continuous activity of previous months seemed a fertile soil for the seeds of temptation and vice, and many earnest boys who appealed to our Workers were helped to rise above the conditions which threatened to engulf them and were shown how to be contented and happy until the longed-for embarkation order arrived. ”

“ On the direct line of communication with the front, and about halfway between Chaumont, General Pershing's headquarters, and Dijon, this city was one of the most important centers of American military activity in all France. Langres has been called “The West Point of France.” Twenty-nine military schools were located there, among which were the following: Army General Staff College, Army School of the Line, Army School of Intelligence, Army Gas School, Army Candidate School, Army Machine Gun School, Anti-Aircraft School, Army Tank Center. ”

“ From a normal population of 70,000 the war refugees swelled this number to 125,000, without reference to the American troops in billets and barracks near the city. The area included in the Le Mans district was 500 square miles, in which were stationed an average of 40,000 men. As our Workers wrote in one of their reports:
“Everyone had a tremendous amount of work to do and all were driving themselves desperately to get it done. Training squads were daily receiving new troops from the States and training them until they literally dropped in their tracks. ”

“ Neither the members of this party nor of those constituting the third one to cross, reckoning the Board's earlier representatives as the first party, were thereafter, at any time, able to carry on a work in any large degree comparable to that done in the camps and cantonments of the United States, as related elsewhere. With the full approval, however, of the State Department and the military authorities in France, these workers established and maintained in ten important centers in France, accessible at all times to many men in the service, depots or Christian Science headquarters. ”

“ In a suburb of Nantes an American hospital center was established consisting of five units accommodating about ten thousand men. At Savenay, in the Nantes area, was the largest hospital center in France, said to care for between eighty and a hundred thousand men. ”

“ It was the desire of the workers to combine beauty with comfort in the rooms and to give the impression of an American living room. This was accomplished, and it meant much to the boys in contrast with the barrenness of army barracks.
In addition to the permanent fixtures, a large reading table was placed in the center of the room on which were all of Mrs. Eddy's works, Bibles and other literature. A picture of The Mother Church and of our Leader were hung on the walls. Writing tables and stationery were provided, as well as a piano and a French stove. ”

“ Because of the duties of the hospital personnel and the constant changing of patients, the services had a different audience each week. Services were also started at another hospital on October 20, the Captain of the Red Cross kindly offering the use of his office for the purpose for a time.
During the first month of the Workers' stay the attendance steadily increased. Some of these visitors were transients, others became regular attendants. All the different branches of the service, including Red Cross and Y. M. C. A. workers, were represented. ”

“ A letter from the lieutenant in charge follows, showing his appreciation of the room.
“ ‘As my service as Commanding Officer of the Casual Camp here seems to be near an end, I am going to write you this letter of appreciation now, lest I forget to tell you what a great favor you have done the boys who have had to stop at this camp.
“ ‘Usually Casuals are in anything but a pleasant frame of mind and the very word “Casual Camp” is a bugbear to them. ”

“ In Langres also was located the Motor Transport Corps, a small city in itself, with thousands of trucks, camions and automobiles constantly coming and going to and from the front lines. Troop trains filled with both American and French soldiers were hourly arriving and departing, besides which large numbers of men daily marched through the streets. Here were also the Headquarters of the Advance Section under a Brigadier-General with his staff and a large corps of officers. ”

“ Many of the younger lads made a practice of coming to the Rooms directly after the evening meal. The first part of the evening they would spend in study, then they would come into the living room to talk with the Workers and other visitors. ”

“ Soldiers were continually on the move, thousands stopping for a few hours in trains upon sidings or in camps a few miles from town. In the town was a Casual Barracks, known in the army as the ‘mad house.’ Here casuals were assembled,—men who had been sick or wounded in action, or detached from their companies for one reason or another. ”

“ In normal peace times the inhabitants numbered approximately 40,000, whereas a conservative estimate of the permanent population located in St. Nazaire and its environs during the war, was 85,000.
Just west of the city a large camp accommodating 12,000 soldiers was built. This was only used for concentration purposes, however, for both the American and British troops. The Americans later built numerous camps about the city, holding from 400 to 2000 men each. Montoir, a near-by point, should properly be included in the St. Nazaire area. ”