The Committe e for Christian Relief in France and Belgium is conducting An Interchurch Campaign for Protestant Relief in France and Belgium $3,000,000 Needed Why this money is essential at the present time. Appeal of the French Churches. History of the relations between the French and Belgian and American Protestant Churches. The $3,000,000 Budget. CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE Chairman: William Sloane Coffin Vice-Chairman: Dr. Henry Van Dyke Campaign Director: George O. Tamblyn Campaign Advisor: Charles S. Ward Treasurer: Alfred R. Kimball HEADQUARTERS ARE AT 289 FOURTH AVENUE APPEAL OF FRENCH CHURCHES N NOVEMBER^, 1917^ the United Protestant Churches of France sent to the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America an urgent appeal for sympathy and material help. “In all the devastated regions of France and Belgium there are Protestant communities. The invasion has literally martyred them. How shall we meet the call to repair breeches, restore ruins, rebuild __ churches and presbyteries, assure the salaries of pastors—salaries the devastated regions will for a long time be unable to furnish? How shall we aid the mutilated, the widows and orphans, enable families to get upon their feet, reorganize homes that have been sacked, cultivate the devastated fields? We should need to count upon about two million dollars in order to provide for immediate needs and for the repair of material damage. A further sum approxi¬ mating the above would be necessary to assure to the churches and to our work of evangelization a fund from which their impoverished budgets might find supple¬ mentary subsidies.” French and Belgian Clergy Visit America This appeal did not fall on deaf ears. As a result of repeated visits to America of eminent representatives of French and Belgian Protestant Churches during the war, an increasing knowledge and understanding of the work of these churches had grown up in America. M. Stuart L. Roussel, of the Evangelical Reformed Church of France, Dr. Henri Anet, of the Belgian Missionary Church, Captains Georges Lauga and Victor Monod, of the French Army and Navy respectively, the last named official delegates of the I 1 rench Protestant Churches, traveled extensively in America and opened up innumerable sympathetic contacts with American churchmen and laymen. In turn prominent American churchmen of every denomination visited France and Belgium. Formation of American and French Committees for Co-operation These contacts bore fruit on January 7, 1918, in the formation of the Com¬ mittee for Christian Relief in France and Belgium, whose purpose was to unite all American Protestants interested in the cause of Protestantism in France and Belgium to consider the most effective means of permanent co-operation and help between the churches of the three countries. In response to this action the French Federation of Churches immediately took steps to form a similar committee in Paris under the title of the Comite D’Union Protestante, on which all French Protestant Churches and organizations are represented. The first action of this committee was to send to the American committee the following words of greeting: “We have heard with deep thankfulness that the principle of a general appeal to your churches has been voted, and that you have been the means of such a momentous step, which, apart from its encouragement to us, brings the glad prophecy of a better union and co-operation between sister churches.” Since that time the Comite D’Union Protestante has directed all measures for the relief of French and Belgian congregations. Through an affiliated com¬ mittee called the Comite D’Entr’Aide it has investigated needs, received requests, estimated losses, and distributed funds received from America and other sources. It is presided over by M. Edouard Gruner, President of the French Federation of Churches, and its Vice-Presidents are M. Cornelis de Witt and M. Andre Weiss of the Institute. The Wallace Lodge Conference In the summer of 1918, at the invitation of the French Protestant Churches and as the guest of the French Government, Dr. Charles S. Marfarland, Secretary of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, made an extended trip to France, where he was enthusiastically welcomed, and accorded every facility for a thorough and comprehensive study of French and Belgian Protestantism. His conclusions were embodied in a report presented on October 23, 1918, to a “Joint Conference of American Agencies” held at Wallace Lodge, Yonkers, New York, “to consider the question of uniting all the American religious agencies interested in France and Belgium in a comprehensive program for the relief and reconstruction of the Protestant forces of the war-stricken countries of France and Belgium.” Represented at the Conference were delegates from the various churches at work in France, or having related work there, including the Lutheran, the Baptist, the Methodist Episcopal and the churches of the Presbyterian and Reformed Alli¬ ance; the American McAll Association; the Administrative Committee of the Federal Council, and the Committee for Christian Relief in France and Belgium. Among the most important recommendations made by this Conference were: (1) That immediate relief be given to the Protestant Churches of France and Belgium to the extent of $300,000, and (2) that all Protestant denominations be approached with a request to make provision, in addition to its own work or related work in France and Belgium, for the general work of the Protestant Churches of these countries. Previous to the Conference about $175,000 had been collected and sent to France through the Committee for Christian Relief in France and Belgium, on which all the organizations present at the Conference are represented; $188,910.11 of the $300,000 voted for emergency war relief had been received by the Committee up to May 14, 1919. $3,000,000 Campaign Voted On January 7, 1919, the need became so great that the committee recom¬ mended that $3,000,000 be raised during 1919 for the support of these churches. It has appointed a campaign committee to take charge of the raising of this sum, and to forcibly present to the American people the challenge and needs of French and Belgian Protestantism. This Campaign Committee, which has been organized under Mr. G. O. Tamblyn as Director and Mr. Charles S. Ward as advisor, has set up headquarters at 289 Fourth Avenue, New York City. How the Three Million Is to Be Raised The reconstruction committees of each of the co-operating denominations are receiving definite apportionments as to the amount needed and a liberal response is planned. But the war has resulted in such great personal benefits that the committee feel that every Protestant should be given a personal opportunity to show his appreciation of the heroic part which French and Belgian brothers of our faith have played in the great war. Urgent appeals have also come on behalf of the Sunday Schools and it is hoped that every Protestant Sunday School in America will take at least one offering for the Protestant Sunday Schools “over there.” Some Christian Endeavor Societies and Epworth Leagues have also shown a direct interest in raising the money. The three million will therefore be raised by the denominations direct, by gifts from individuals appealed to at Easter and Memorial Day, and by contributions from Sunday Schools and young people’s societies. Why This Appeal Is Made Now The American people have contributed and contributed liberally to the Y. M. C. A., Red Cross, Armenian and Syrian Relief, Fatherless Children of France, the Victory Loan, and innumerable other good causes. Almost everyone can be excused for feeling that he has already given to the very limit of his capacity. Nevertheless the claim of the suffering Protestants of France and Belgium can not be neglected. Their needs are immediate. Returning refugees can not wait two or three years to be fed and clothed. Pastors can not be allowed to starve until their ruined congregations can afford to pay their salaries. The disorganized church life of these people must be restored at once if spiritual leadership is to keep pace with material reconstruction. A dollar now is worth three times the amount three years from now. Protestantism must not be allowed to die out in the land of the Huguenots. Budget $3,000,000 Fund for Relief of French and Belgian Protestants COMITE D’ENTRE’AIDE . $1,350,000 “This,” according to Rev. Chauncey Goodrich, Pastor of the American Church in Paris, “is an admirably organized and vigorously directed relief organization representing all Protestant bodies and designed to help in the relief and rehabilitation of the Protestant families, with emergency help to churches within certain limits. Temporary repairs to make slightly injured churches fit for service are undertaken. Pastors and people are being helped to get together and to become re-established in communities and congregations and get other church services started again.” There is distinct need of this help coming through Protestant channels. Other funds have often been distributed through organizations on which Protestants had no representation whatsoever. RESTORATION OF CHURCHES AND MANSES. . . . $300,000 This is a minimum allotment. Dr. Goodrich writes of this need as follows: “The question of church edifices will be taken up when immediate relief is less urgent. This question also is somewhat complicated bv the fact that congregations have a right ultimately to receive compensation through the Government for build¬ ings destroyed. Such compensation will come too late to be of immediate use, and it will probably never do more than cover partially the expense of reconstruction. At a guess I should say that the value of the buildings destroyed, according to appraisement before the war, will not more than half cover the cost of erection now. Some help must be had from America for this, and attention will be given to this side of the matter as soon as the more crying needs are met.” The statement issued by the United Protestant Committee of the French and Belgian Churches of the cost of the damage done the church buildings accompanies this report. Chaplain Daniel Couve, of the 59th Division of the French Army, who is well known to American Churchmen of all denominations, estimates the total destruction at $600,000 in the light of current prices. EMERGENCY RELIEF OF PASTORS. $150,000 In regard to this Dr. Goodrich writes as follows: “In view of war conditions French pastors are pitiably underpaid to-day. The street sweepers of France receive 4,000 frs. a year, and are agitating for an increase to 5,000 frs. Being organized, they have been able to make their demands effective at a time when the Government is anxious to avoid all occasions for social unrest. French pastors and Belgian pastors on the other hand receive an average salary of less than 3,000 frs. I have been told by a well-informed pastor that the average is 2,500 frs., but I have not proved this by consulting actual figures. The French Protestant church is not to be blamed for this. The lay members are waking up to the situation, as they are regarding a somewhat similar situation in America, and they are trying to do their utmost. The financial burden, however, on the Protestants of stricken France is very heavy. It is fitting that help from America should be used in part to relieve the desperate situation of the pastors. On every side government officials are receiving special additions to their salaries in view of the extraordinary cost of living, and something must be done for the pastors as leaders of the Protestant church. In this the French are trying to do their share but they will welcome help also from America. You can imagine the difficulty of living on a small salary in a country where in not a few cities butter cost $1.75 a pound and meat anywhere from a dollar to a dollar and a half a pound.” Protestant Chaplain in Chief Blomaert of the Belgian Army remarks: “The salaries of Belgian ministers, which were scandalously insufficient during the war, appear ridiculous in face of the needs of the future.” The French Protestant Committee during the last month proposed to raise the salary of every French pastor by 2,000 frs. It is, however, almost certain that in their present condition French Protestants themselves will not be able to raise this sum. Besides this, there will be many ministers and missionaries returning broken and crippled, whose usefulness wall only be ragained by a long period of repose or special treatment undisturbed by financial anxiety. THE WORK OF FOREIGN MISSIONS... $300,000 It is a fact that French Missionary societies alone are qualified, under present conditions, to occupy some of the world’s most important unoccupied fields, those which are French colonies. In Asia there is the whole of French Indo-China, with twenty million inhabitants. In Africa are French Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Dahomey, the greater part of the French Congo, by itself nearly three times as large as France, and above all the Sudan, where the final conflict between the Crescent and the Cross is to be decided. These African colonies contain more than thirty million inhabitants, making a total of fifty million subjects of France who are still waiting for the Gospel. The door is wide open to French missions, and since the Protestant Missionarv Societies of America and Great Britain are in most «/ cases debarred from these fields, it is an especial opportunity to come forward with help for those who occupy them. The French Foreign Missionary societies have been sustained by special gifts during the war, but their finances are terribly crippled, and the work cannot be carried on effectively without outside support. HOME MISSIONS . $300,000 Chaplain Daniel Couve says: “The great need of France, in my opinion, is to make French Christianity Democratic and French Democracy Christian. Pro¬ testantism, through its history and tradition, is peculiarly fitted for this task. The French people are more open than before the war to a religious appeal. There are 20,000,000 Frenchmen not vitally connected with any religious organization many of whom have been moved by the beneficent activities of such religious organizations as the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. to a greater respect and interest than ever before in religion. It is to those that Protestantism has a unique oppor¬ tunity to appeal. This appeal can be most effectively made by strengthening such interdenom¬ inational organizations as the Central Evangelical Society, which for years has been conducting evangelical work, especially among the working population of the industrial North, which has been extremely successful in winning over the French working people to Christianity. Men’s and women’s clubs, boy scouts, debating societies, temperance societies and social work of every kind have been successfully carried out by its missions. If the present unique opportunity to fill the need of the French working men for the acceptance of Christ is to be taken advantage of, the work of this organiza¬ tion and similar organizations in other parts of France must be strengthened. RE-EDUCATING WOUNDED SOLDIERS. $100,000 There are 2,000,000 wounded and disabled French soldiers. In the city of Nantes a branch of the McAll Mission, directed by Emmanuel Chastand, is re¬ educating these wounded men, in order to make them self supporting. Pastor Chastand has a genius for training men who have lost one or more limbs. Sub¬ stitutes for hands, arms and legs are designed by the Director and manufactured by the men. Watch making, wooden shoes, carpentry, tinsmith work, auto mechanics, metal pulling, mechanical drawing, metal turning, tailoring, and painting and decoration are undertaken. So great is the proficiency of the wounded men that they were frequently employed by the A. E. F. at Nantes to repair their autos and remake uniforms. Note. —This work is in part subsidized by the French Government, but is also partly dependent for maintenance and development on outside support. No more essential work is being done in the world to-day. ASYLUMS AND ORPHANAGES. $100,000 Many will be the widows and fatherless children of ministers, evangelists and missionaries not actually killed in battle and therefore not entitled to pensions from the state, who must he cared for by the church. The Sanatorium Gaspard de Coligny for tubercular patients in the South of France, John Bost Homes for every kind of crippled and defective persons, the orphanage which is conducted at Uccle by the Belgian Protestant Church, all these organizations need support for the work of restoring as far as possible the health of cripples and physical wrecks. ANNA HAMILTON HOSPITAL . $250,000 The Anna Hamilton Hospital at Bordeaux is the only scientific school for nursing in France. It is directed by Dr. Hamilton, who is known as the Florence Nightingale of France. Dr. Hamilton, since 1900, has been endeavoring to intro¬ duce the principle of efficient nursing by women into the French Hospitals. She has been bitterly criticized by Roman Catholics, by Protestants, by the French Red Cross and existing nursing schools. However, she became and still is resident Doctor and Directress of the nursing school. Dr. Hamilton, during the war, turned her hospital into a hospital for the wounded which equalled the best British hospitals in cleanliness, comfort and good nursing. Furthermore, she has turned out first- class nurses. In 1914 a friend bequeathed to the hospital a beautiful house of sixteen acres, with a farm and flowers and fruit trees to be used for a much enlarged hospital school. On account of the war this work had to be halted. It is essential for the welfare of France that it be set in motion again. The professional value of the school is inestimable. Mrs. Bedford Fenwick, the greatest living nursing expert, remarks: “The work is a wonderful educational work and it would be of the greatest benefit as a standard of nursing in France. The school should not only be extended, but imitated in other localities, and we imagine no greater work connected with reconstruction than the provision of thoroughly qualified French nurses.” There is another, almost more important side of this hospital work. Child life in France has suffered beyond measure during the past five years. War conditions have robbed the children of necessary food, clothing, schooling, housing, medical attention, and parental love and care, with the awful result that children have died by thousands. A report made by the Surgeon General of the Bordeaux district shows the increasing mortality among very young children as the War continued: 1914, 25 per cent.; 1915, 35 per cent.; 1916, 66 per cent.; 1917, 81 per cent. The slaughter of the innocents is more alarming than the slaughter of the soldiers. These conditions among children must be improved at once if France is to regain her population and recover her former strength. The Protestant Hospital is giving special attention to children’s needs and is caring for children with marked success. Its resources are limited, however. By aiding it with increased funds this institution could become one of the chief factors in France in restoring normal conditions among children. One of the most promising features of this hospital work is in its School of Nurses in which carefully selected young women are trained with special reference to conserving child life. These nurses visit homes and teach parents how to improve conditions and how properly and scientifically to care for the child. The demand for these Community Nurses is far beyond the capacity of the School to supply. The School s capacity should be increased at once tenfold or more. These trained nurses for children should be sent into every city, town, village and countryside of France. The management of this hospital is such as to readily lend itself to co-operation. At present every Protestant pastor of Bordeaux is by reason of his office a member of the Board of Managers. The Managers will also welcome representation in the Board from any considerable body or organization that wishes to eo-operate. This seems like a providential opening to Protestantism to aid in the most needed and most promising work of reconstruction. EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL WORK, SCHOOLS IN IN¬ VADED REGIONS, SEMINARIES, SUNDAY SCHOOLS $200,000 (The seminaries at Montauban and Paris will receive special attention.) SCHOLARSHIPS FOR FRENCH AND BELGIAN STU¬ DENTS IN AMERICAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES $50,000 SPECIAL SUPPORT FOR BELGIUM. $100,000 (In addition to her share of the above items.) This to be employed in numerous ways. Chaplain Blommaert, who has just arrived in this country suggests as great needs: First—A school for evangelists in order to train native Belgians to undertake the duties of pastors, which have been largely in Swiss hands, and to educate Belgian Protestant laymen who have not had sufficient culture to become efficient evangelists. Second—To create the office of General Secretary of all the Belgian Protestant Churches to organize their activities, to promote social welfare, to see to it that duplication is avoided, to plan out a statesmanlike program for development and to further church unity. TOTAL . ... $3,200,000 If additional funds are forthcoming, another work of great value is: THE RELIGIOUS PRESS . $100,000 The religious press both of France and Belgium is an indispensable agency for promoting the growth of Protestantism. The French Protestant press is of a very high standard, but at present the editors can not afford to use good paper and attractive type. One of the causes for which Chaplain Leo of the Alpine Chasseurs has come to America is to obtain financial support for a Journal of Social Christianity, to develop the possibilities of social work in connection with churches in France. NOTE.—All sums not disbursed by the Comite D’Entr Aide will be dis¬ tributed by the United Committee of the French and Belgian Protestant Churches whose high standing is testified to by Dr. Goodrich and Messrs. Guy and de Billy, of the French High Commission of New York. The Budget is based on reports made by Dr. Chauncey Goodrich, pastor of the American Church at Paris, M. Andre Monod, Secretary of the United Protestant Committee of French and Belgian Churches, Rev. Chas. S. Macfarland, Secretary of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, Chaplains Daniel Couve and Albert Leo, of the French Army, Chaplain in Chief Blommaert and Dr. Henri Anet, of Belgium, and others. Protestant Churches, Places of Worship and Mission Halls Destroyed or Damaged During the War Estimated Loss on Pre-War Basis METZERAL (Alsace) Church greatly damaged. $6,000 THANN (Alsace) Church damaged . NANC\ Methodist Chapel damaged by bomb, October, 1914 . Reformed Church and Manse damaged by 380 mm. shells . 40,000 VERDUN Church bombarded . 8,000 RHEIMS Church, Manse, Y. M. C. A. building, hit by shells and destroyed by fire, September, 1914 . 100,000 Protestant School . 10,000 SOISSONS Church destroyed by shells on Christmas Eve, 1915 . 4,000 CHAUNY Baptist Church greatly damaged. 4,000 TERGNIER (Aisne) Mission Hall and Evangelist’s lodgings, de¬ stroyed . 9 000 TEMPLEUX LE GUNERARD (Somme) Church and Manse destroyed. 14,000 NAUROY (Aisne) Church and Manse destroyed. 14,000 JEANCOURT (Aisne) Church and Manse destroyed. 14,000 HARGICOURT (Aisne) Church, Y. M. C. A., Manse destroyed. 20,000 SAINT QUENTIN Large Church, built 1615, and other buildings destroyed . 40,000 POMMERY Old-age Asylum and Castle, serving as a house of rest, property of Reformed Church in St. Quentin, destroyed . 12,000 LENS Baptist Church destroyed, Reformed Church and Manse, destroyed . 9,200 LIEVIN Reformed Church, Manse and Hall destroyed 9,600 VALINCOURT Church occupied by German troops who burnt pulpit and other fixtures. 4,000 DOUAI Church damaged by explosion early in 1915. LILLE Church and Manse damaged by explosion earlv in 1915, repaired . EPERNAY Church greatly damaged. 3,000 TROISSY Church greatly damaged. 6,000 MONNEAUX Church greatly damaged. 6,000 COMPIEGNE Church greatly damaged. 4,000 FRESNOY Church greatly damaged. 4,000 LAON (Aisne) Church damaged . 1,000 FIENIN LIETARD Church, Manse and Y. M. C. A. Hall damaged 2,300 ANICHE (Nord) Church damaged . 500 SIN LE NOBLE (Nord) Church, Manse, Y. M. C. A. Flail damaged.. 2,200 SAINT JUST EN CHAUSSEE Church and Manse damaged. 10,000 DORIGNIES (Nord) Church damaged . 3,000 TOURCOING (Nord) Church and Manse damaged. 10,000 MALTBEGE (Nord) Church damaged . 6,000 Total $367,800