BULLETIN FROM UNIVERSITY UNION IN PARIS

News concerning Dartmouth men abroad has just been received from E. B. Watson '02, our representative at the American University Union.

"The following letter from Herman Whitmore was received by Miss Tennis of Paris. Probably the family have already received a copy:

" 'Corp. Herman Whitmore Block 7, Offizier-Gerfangenen-Lager, Ralstalt (Baden)

" Write Thaw for news of my capture. Please look up all prisoner of war societies and see that I get the maximum weight and number of parcels to above address. . . . Send mostly chocolate and sweets. Spare no costs as you never can know the happiness chocolate can bring. I am well and happy as possible.'

"We have therefore taken whatever steps we could to get some through to him as soon as possible. I have taken the matter up with the Red Cross through their representative in Berne, and also through some of the French agencies. You may be sure we shall do all that we can.

"We have heard that Falconer, who was wounded, has sailed for America. We hear that Shapley, who was wounded, is all right, and is at one of the port towns. He was in the fighting on the retreat to Montdidier.

"There was another smoker at the Union for New England Bureau men the other evening. Prof. Hunkins of Brown, who is a graduate of Dartmouth, was present. He has been acting as the Brown representative of the Union. I also met William Sewall '17, who is a 2nd Lieutenant of infantry. He has just recovered from gassing and trench fever. He looked well and was in excellent spirits. He belongs to Co. B, 18th Infantry.

"We are now at the height of the Soissons to Marne battle. We have had air raids almost every night for the last week. Grosse Bertha fires on us by day. These, however, are mere diversions, without which we should feel almost abnormal. The big thing is going on some forty or fifty miles to the north and east of us. Yesterday and today the communiques have been somewhat reassuring, but the danger of a catastrophe is at the back of all our thoughts. Refugees are pouring into the city in the most lamentable condition imaginable. At our end of the city, however, there is little to remind us of the great struggle. Everyone goes about his work, and in general, I imagine, we look less warlike here than you in America. We are told that our reserves are taking their positions for the final phase of the battle. No one has any doubt that they will stem the tide, but we have as never before a sense of the odds against us. We realize how long we have been filled with a false sense of security as to our superiority of numbers. If we have any such superiority, it has nowhere been apparent, although the big German drives have felt out the longest and most important parts of our line. It is clear that the German command realizes the seriousness of the American menace, and that it is doing everything in its power to win in the race between Germany's lack of time and America's lack of effectives in the field. We in France hope that you in America will do all in your power to cry down that unhealthy class of politicians and journalists that have been deluging France and England with extravagant of phalanxes of air-craft and stampedes of tanks and unnamed creations of science which were to defeat the enemy by a press of the button. What we have done in getting over a large fighting army has been magnificent and unexpected by our allies and the enemy, but its effect upon the popular mind has been quite lost by our failure to fulfill the loudly proclaimed impossibilities that we childishly made as pledges to our allies. Only the enemy was undeceived by them. We are hoping that our armies which have been hurried over quietly and steadily will soon show what we have been doing, and perhaps, surprise the world. They will do well if they can save Europe from the greatest calamity of history by checking the drive on Paris. It is clear that they are with the French and English reserves moving to the front. Whatever they do will merely be supplementary to the greater effort of the Allies. If it is just'enough support we shall be fortunate. If they can do a little more than resist, it may be that the German superman will come crashing to earth. You will probably know before this reaches you more than I could possibly predict."

June 27, 1918.

To the Editor of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE

Dear Sir:

I think reference has already been made in past issues of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE to the urgent need of our troops abroad for athletic instructors to organize their recreation periods. The war council of the Y. M. C. A. has been recruiting instructors for several months and since the first of the year they have had the assistance of an intercollegiate committee representing practically all of the universities and colleges having alumni residing in New York.

At first it was assumed that the controlling requirement was actual experience in athletic contests but the desirability of securing men with general all round organizing ability was also recognized and the endeavor was made to enlist the interest of many college men. So far as Dartmouth is concerned, letters were written to all the "D" men from 1900 to 1910 with the result that four men have already sailed and ten to twelve more are considering entering the service. The work of the men who have been at the front since early spring has convinced the committee that actual athletic or coaching experience is of very little importance compared with the ability to organize and initiate all kinds .of games and other recreation. Conditions at the front have made mass athletics impossible, with the result that games are played in small groups in all sorts of surroundings and places and the work has become a problem of securing and delivering the necessary paraphernalia and arranging for facilities and opportunities to use them.

Here is the greatest opportunity I know for college men not subject to the draft to help make the men in the army healthier, happier and more efficient. Dartmouth is so well represented by its undergraduates and younger alumni in every other branch of the service that the Committee confidently assumes that it will promptly furnish its quota for this undertaking.

I would like to bring this opportunity to the attention of every Dartmouth man. May I then urge readers of the MAGAZINE to send me the names of someone else in case they themselves are not in a position to consider the service.

Yours as ever,

Edward K. Hall '92