THE MUSIC CORNER IN A RED CROSS CAN TEEN GIVES A TOUCH OF HOME SOCIAL LIFE The first war-time purpose of the American Red Cross was to help win the war; the second was to save civilization while the war was going on. From the day the United States entered the war up to July 1, 1918, the women of the American Red Cross made 10,786.489 hospital garments for the use of "our boys." Here is one of both-boy and garment. The boy is cheerful in spite of the load of shell fragments he is carrying in various parts of his anatomy, and the garment-maybe it's from your own Red Cross chapter. AN OLD JEWEL IN THE PROPER SETTING An Eyewitness's Account of the Reconquest of the Holy Land by Twentieth Century Crusaders S BY CHARLES W. WHITEHAIR INCE King David, nearly three thousand years ago, captured Jerusalem and made it his capital, it has been a coveted prize, sought not so much by the nations for its military importance as for its sacredness to three of the world's greatest religions. For to the Jew and the Mohammedan, as well as the Christian, Jerusalem is "The Holy City." Throughout its history the wearied feet of millions of pilgrims from far-distant lands have never ceased to climb over the rocky Judean hills to pay homage and to worship within its sacred walls. To the Jew, as the home of his forefathers, it has always been of hallowed memory in spite of the hundreds of years of his exile. To the Christian, Jerusalem, with the surrounding country, is truly "The Holy Land," for it is the land of his Lord's birth, His ministry, His crucifixion, His resurrection. Throughout Christendom the names Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Bethlehem, and Garden of Gethsemane are laden with meaning, even to the smallest school child. To the Mohammedan, Jerusalem is second only to Mecca in sanctity. Repeatedly besieged, captured, and recaptured, practically all of the great nations of history have held sway over the Holy City-the Israelites, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Assyrians, Romans, Saracens, Crusaders, and Turks-and its surrender in the past has nearly always meant the destruction of its buildings and the wholesale slaughter of the population. BRITISH CAPTORS WITHHELD SHELLFIRE FROM THE SACRED CITY The treatment which Jerusalem has received at the hands of her British captors stands out in strong contrast to her past history of suffering. Realizing the importance of Jerusalem to the Christians, the Jews, and the Mohammedans, General Allenby so planned his campaign that he captured the town without firing a single shell into the ancient walled city. However, the capture of Jerusalem is only an isolated incident in the great Palestine campaign. Operating in an inhospitable, hostile country, where not only food, clothing, and munitions had to be transported from great distances, but even water carried many weary miles to her forces fighting amid oppressive desert heat, Great Britain and her colonies, practically unaided, crushed the Turkish Empire. To do so she sent a million men to the Holy Land and Mesopotamia, transporting them an average distance of about 3,000 miles through submarine-infested seas. And these campaigns were conducted simultaneously with the major operations of her armies in Belgium and France and the activities of other hundreds of thousands in Macedonia and East Africa! Early in 1915 the Turkish forces, aided by the Germans, were launched against the Suez Canal-the main artery of the British Empire, connecting Australia, New Zealand, and India with the mother country. In February, a small force of the enemy reached the canal and was driven back; but in order to protect this vital waterway it became necessary for the British to launch an offensive. This meant pushing forward over 150 miles of desert, which marked the beginning of the long, weary months of fighting on the Sinai Peninsula, known as the Desert campaign. America can little realize those awful days of suffering. |