The easternmost end of the Western front, which was the scene of some of the most severe fighting in the first months of the war, now held by relatively few men on either side but still a vital link in the chain of the Allied defense

W

WHEN the New York and London offices of the Commission had purchased the supplies and seen to their transportation overseas, and the Rotterdam office had received and transshipped them into canal boats or railway cars, and started them on their way to Belgium and North France, they were thereafter in charge of that part of the Commission organization which was within the German-occupied territory. Everything that was later done by the Commission with the food and clothing was done by that part of it working in Belgium, and it was done under formal and informal agreements and arrangements with the German authorities in control of Belgium. The more formal of these agreements have already been explained.

But also all that was done inside of Belgium was done in agreement and close coöperation with the extensive and highly developed volunteer Belgian relief organization, composed at bottom of the (approximately) three thousand communal committees, then, above them, the regional committees representing groups of communes, then, still over these, the provincial committees, one for each province in the country, and finally, at top, the Belgian national committee.

To define, as well as might be defined in words, the special functions and position of each of the two parts of the combined relief organization, and the general relations to be maintained between them, various formulations of agreement have been drafted from time to time. The first written-out general scheme of organization bears date of December, 1914. Before that, of course, had come the allimportant meeting in London, in October, 1914, between Mr. Hoover and M. Francqui, the organizing and directing heads of the two groups, at which a general agreement as to fundamentals was reached.

The last general agreement was written out in December, 1916, and was drawn up in the light of all the experience of two years of work. It was intended to do away with any possible future misunderstandings concerning any phase of the relations of the two groups, and was drafted and signed as a formal agreement between the directing heads.

In any complete history of the Commission's work these agreements with our Belgian coworkers must be fully given. No space for that is possible here. But certain essential points of the arrangements must be given in order that the important and delicate position of the Americans working in Belgium can be in some measure understood.

I quote from the "general scheme" of December, 1914, which was drafted chiefly to point out the position of the Commission's provincial representatives:

As the Comité National will control its work through ten sub-committees, or Comités Provinciaux, each covering a province of Belgium [one province, Brabant, is subdivided for purposes of food administration into two, one being Greater Brussels, and the other all of Brabant province outside of Brussels] and each having its own president and working organization, the Commission for Relief in Belgium proposes to station an authorized delegate (with one or more assistants) in each province, at the point where the principal office of the Comité Provincial, with its president, is located. The Comité National will also station a delegate or two delegates, as the case may require, at the same office, who will represent the central organization at Brussels.

The head delegate of the C. R. B., the delegate of the C. N., and the president of the C. P. will form the three principals for the affairs of the relief work in the province.

But as it has been clearly stipulated that the grain or other merchandise introduced into Belgium by the C. R. B. is under the responsibility of their Excellencies the Ministers of the United States and of Spain, who are the protectors of the Commission, it