[Illustration: AMBASSADOR GERARD AND HIS PARTY IN SEDAN.]
[Illustration: WITH GERMAN OFFICERS AND MEMBERS OF THE FRENCH
FOOD COMMISSION BEFORE THE COTTAGE AT BAZEILLES, WHERE NAPOLEON
III AND BISMARCK MET AFTER THE BATTLE OF SEDAN.]
The feeding of the French population, which is carried on by
the American Relief Commission, was a very interesting thing
to see and, in company with one of the members of the French
committee, we saw the workings of this system of American Relief.
We first visited a storehouse in Charleville, the headquarters
for the relief district of which Charleville may be called the
capital.
For relief purposes Northern France is divided into six districts.
From the central distribution point in each district, food is
sent to the commune within the district, the commune being the
ultimate unit of distribution and each commune containing on
the average about five hundred souls. We then motored to one
of the communes where the distribution of food for the week was
to take place that afternoon. Here in a factory, closed since the
war, the people of the commune were lined up with their baskets
waiting for their share of the rations.
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