"Unto the Least of These.
His Holiness the Pope has undertaken special work for relieving the condition of French prisoners of war and Is establishing an organtzation to reopen communications between prisonifers and their families. For so busy a man, Who is also in only frail health, to initiate such a work is remarkable testimony to his sympathy and to the inspiration of Christianity. which lies behind it. The conditions in France as they affect prisoners of war and refugees are deplorable, For that no one but the Nazis is to blame, Tens of thousands of refugees were driven from their homes, machine-gunned while {in flight along crowded highways, and left destitute in the care of a government which had been reduced to desperation. There was, therefore, a double anxiety in every family; that felt by the parents and relatives over the fate of their soldier son, and that felt by the soldier son over the fate of his parents, In the confusion "which reigned, neither could. know what had happened to the other; on the top of indescribable physical privations was added this tragic worry, to relieve which is an inestimable fact of merey. The International Red Cross has already done most valuable work in this direc tion, Details of how they have attempted to cope with the chaotic situation In Europe have not yet reached Shanghai. It is presumed that the organization being set up by the Pope will be supplementary to that already existing, how= ever. Even if not, sympathizers are assured that this is a task in which it is impossible to ha too many collaborators, Tt should not be for~ gotten that there are thousands of Frenchmen now cooped up behind barbed wire barricades, who Init down their arms because they. were ordered to and not because they "wanted to. Any attempt to assist in their misery must be welcomed, His Holiness had experience of relieving this distress during the last war, when he was Papal Nuncio at Munich, He, therefore, knows what is wanted. The circumstances of these prisoners of war today are, of course, in~ finitely worse than they were In Germany' between 1914 and 1918, and the teachings of the Nazis are in direct opposition to those of the Chueh. Nevertheless It is probable that_much good will result from the lead given by the Vatican, and the Nazis are not likely to impede any outside efforts which may free them of some of their responsibilities to their captive
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.