ral Relief Committee sent Emil Francqui and
Baron Lambert, members of their committee, together with Mr. Hugh
Gibson, secretary of the American Legation, whose activities in behalf
of Belgium attracted much favorable notice, to the city of London, to
explain to the British Government the suffering that existed in Belgium,
and to obtain permission to transport food through the British blockade.
In the course of this work they appealed to the American Ambassador in
England, Mr. Walter Hines Page, and were introduced by him to an
American mining engineer named Herbert Clark Hoover, who had just become
prominent as the chairman of a committee to assist Americans who had
found themselves in Europe when the war broke out, and had been unable
to secure funds.

Mr. Hoover took up the matter with great vigor, and organized an
American committee under the patronage of the ministers of the United
States and of Spain in London, Berlin, The Hague and Brussels, which
committee obtained permission from the British Government to purchase
and transport through the British blockade, to Rotterdam, Holland,
cargoes of foodstuffs, to be ultimately transferred into Belgium and
distributed by the Belgian Central Relief Committee under the direction
of American citizens headed by Mr. Brand Whitlock.

[Illustration: Painting: Several ships and two airplanes.]
AN AIRPLANE CONVOY
Food ships successfully convoyed by seaplanes in clear weather when
submarines were easier to detect.

188 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR

[Illustration: Painting]
BRITISH LIGHT ARTILLERY GETTING IN ON THE GALLOP
Always the guns must follow closely in the wake of the infantry to
break up German counter attacks and hold the ground gained. Here a
detachment of the Royal Horse Artillery storms through a deserted
Flanders village, straining every nerve to save those few seconds that
may mean the saving or the loss of the new positions won.

The following brief notices, in connection with this committee appeared
in the London Times:

October 24 1914.--A commission has been set up in London, under the
title of The American Commission for Relief in Belgium. The Brussels
committee reports feeding 300,000 daily.

November 4.--The Commission for Relief in Belgium yesterday issued their
first weekly report, 3 London Wall Buildings. A cargo was received
yesterday at Brussels just in time. Estimated monthly requirements,
60,000 tons grain, 15,000 tons mai