April 18, 1949

(Mailed in French 04/18/49)

Mr. Henri Torlotting, Instructor
Feves, Moselle, France

Dear Mr. Torlotting,

It was a real pleasure to receive your letter of March 7th [5th is correct date], also the picture of the school children at their Xmas party. I showed it to Homer Christenson, and it made him very happy to know that he was able to make the children happy at the Xmas Time. Since my last letter to you, we have sent four more CARE Seed Packages to you for distribution, this making a total of NINE packages, and we sincerely hope that they arrive in time so your people can plant them at the proper time. The distance is great between Morganville and Feves and freight shipments take a long time to arrive. We were also pleased to know that you received the first shipment of clothing and powdered milk and had most of it distributed. By all means, send me the children�s writings and I will have them translated into English. We too, have trouble in getting the letters translated, as most of the French people living here, came from Canada, and they speak the language a little differently. I have a son who graduates from the U.S. Naval Academy this summer and as he has studied your language, I have him translate the letters for me. We have a priest in nearby town who can translate, and we are going to get him to do this for us. Our committee is now working on the pageant script and as soon as we get it translated, we will send it to you with about 19 large photo which we took at the pageant last fall and that way your people will have an idea how every one was anxious to help your people who have suffered and lost so much in this last war. I am enclosing a list of the things we have sent to Feves for distribution, and we would like to know if they have arrived in good condition.

The Morganville girl who is living in Paris with her husband, who works for TWA lives at the following address in case you would like to write her in regards [to] their intended trip to Feves in the near future.

Mrs. Edwin Utley
34 Rue Broris [Boris] Vilde
Fontenay-Aux-Roses
Seine, France

Spring is here and the farmers are planting their spring crops of oats, clover and grasses. They will plant the corn in about three weeks. Our wheat crop looks very poorly, as a lot of it was killed by the severe winter weather and thick ice on the fields, which smothered it out.

Two of our women who were on the baby clothing committee have received letters from Father Holveck and they were pleased to know that the package had arrived there and had been distributed. Please let me know as soon as possible if the women could use some lard or anything else that is hard to get in France at this time. We have quite a sum of money in the bank that we raised for Feves, so if you will let me, know what it is you people need the most, we would appreciate it very much.

Sincerely,

Daniel J. Roenigk