ARC 310 October 1941 FOREWORD More than two years have passed since the beginning of the world conflict, September 1939. Brutal warfare has spread over the earth's surface. Men, women, and children have perished under aerial bombardments. Indescribable distress has been inflicted on un¬told millions of innocent people. Innumerable refugees have been driven from their homes and remain wanderers in their alien-domin¬ated countries or in foreign lands. A resume is given here of the relief sent by the people of the United States, through the American Red Cross, seeking in some measure to relieve the distress of the wounded, hungry, and home¬less and to bring to them a light of hope. This is a narrative of the relief measures inaugurated on the dark day of the invasion of Poland, and of the aid given or attempted for other nations as their people were added to the millions of victims of warfare. Today, help from the American Red Cross is mainly concen¬trated in Great Britain, the Middle East, and China. The scope of the problem that lies ahead is clouded in war and economic issues which will be unfolded only with the march of world events. Millions of citizens have sacrificed their time and energy to this work. Millions have contributed their money to the $22,000,000 Red Cross War Relief Fund; more than one million women volunteers have given of their time in making surgical dressings and sewing garments for the war sufferers; hundreds of thousands of chapter officers have volunteered long hours to direct this work. To the personnel in Red Cross warehouses, purchasing offices, administrative offices, and in the cooperating agencies of the United States Government? must go a major share of credit. To our Red Cross representatives abroad, sharing the hardships of the people they have been aiding, must go deepest gratitude. Without the understanding counsel of our President, the co¬operation of many Governmental agencies and their representatives abroad, as well as the numerous agencies through which assistance has been extended in foreign countries, this relief would not have been possible. All of these operations have been under the general direc¬tion of the Vice Chairman in charge of Insular and Foreign Opera-tions, Mr. Ernest J. Swift. Our citizens may take pride in reviewing this report, in the realization that their money and individual sacrifice and labor have made possible a merciful and humanitarian work which has eased the burden of millions. Within our capacity, this relief to the war- distressed continues. Chairman