EFFORTS OF QUAKERS TO FEED EUROPEANS RELATED BY JONES

Feeding the victims of the general European famine is made all the more difficulty by the fact that no food can be brought through the British blockade, and that supplies must be obtained somewhere in Europe, Rufus Jones, chairman of the American Friends Service Committee said in an interview, after speaking at the morning Chapel service yesterday.

Already in their mercy work abroad American Quakers have fed 84,000 children and 6,000 prisoners, largely with milk obtained in Switzerland, and vegetables shipped from North Africa.

Children Chief Concern

"We must have concern for children above all," Jones said, since it is among them that famine takes its greatest toll. Widespread rickets among European children is being combated with vitamin concentrates, formerly shipped in five gallon lots via clipper, and now obtained in Denmark.

Commenting on the success of the Quakers in keeping their supplies out of German hands, Jones pointed out that these men in branch offices are able to be present at the distribution of material and see that it gets into the proper hands. "No item of our food has been taken" he said.

Although it is impossible to ship food from America abroad because of the blockade and lack of ships, one vessel with 50 tons of much needed clothing was able to get through to the central office at Marseilles. Famine this year is most severe in Poland and Greece, but the Germans will allow no organizations to work in occupied countries and thus not much can be done.

Men Work on Burma Road

In addition to workers in Europe, the Friends Service Committee maintains a staff of 60 men on the Burma Road where they drive ambulances and take vital supplies to Chinese Hospitals, as well as care for the wounded on the road. Two men also work at Libson, now the bottleneck for refugees, where thousands are stranded with no means of leaving, and another agent is being sent to Casablanca to do relief work among refugees there and among the workers on the new Sahara railroad.

Despite obstacles and the difficulties of getting supplies, Jones affirmed that the work of feeding the famine-stricken children of Europe would be carried on to the greatest extent possible with the limited supplies at hand and that after the end of the war there would be an even greater role to play in the rehabilitation of Europe.