Excerpts from Letter Received from Mr. Todd on December Third, 1948

1. I have been to Le Havre, Orleans, Feves, Woippy, Ars, Metz, and Maizieres in France. In Holland, I have been to the Hague, Arnhem, Ritthem, Middelburg, West Kapelle, Engenlen-Bokhoven, Zevenbergen, Herkenbosch, Doetinchem, Vlissengen (Flushing), Bergen op Zoom, Moerdijk. In Luxembourg, I have visited Diekirch, Echternach, Hosingen, and Grevenmacher. Here I am including only those places where I have talked with burgomasters, mayors, etc., and discussed problems of affiliation.

2. O.D. has been discussed rather thoroughly with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, the Press Chief of Luxembourg, our Ambassador, Mr. West, the head mayor of Luxembourg [City]. In Holland, I went over it with our cultural attache, Colton Huyler; Van den Ring of the Red Cross, Stants (Scales' friend in Holland) and others. In France, I have spent a great deal of time with Voisin and Blog Mascart of Entr'Aide, Miss Gilliam (American Aid to France) Capitaine de Maudhuit in Metz, etc.

3. My plans are to hold out for the Queen Elizabeth, which means I shall be at least a week late. The strike has disrupted everything, but I can use the extra time [to] very good advantage. (A cable received from Mr. Todd advises that he is sailing from Europe on the twelfth).

4. It is my honest opinion, after these three crowded weeks, that O.D. is one of the most important things (potentially) in the world at this moment. We have made many mistakes - a few of them rather serious, but we have a basic notion which can do far more good than we ever dreamed. Our faith, I believe, has so far been justified. However, there are certain basic facts which must be taken into account from now on. The facts vary with each country, of course.

FRANCE - We must do much more here, and we must not ever let any American town promise what it cannot fulfill. We must be discriminating in our shipments. No more food! No more used clothes! Instead, we must concentrate on children and old people. We cannot work with A.A.T.F. alone. We MUST have direct contact with Entr'Aide in the field. We must team up with Unesco and concentrate on projects such as school help, library assistance, foyers[?] for old people, etc. We cannot possibly work with Bennett!

I went to Feves. The school kids were lined up in the streets to greet me. The whole French press was there ...they made speeches. I made a speech in my awful French. When the kids sang "Sur le Pont," I wept like a baby. I toasted Morganville with glass after glass of Mirabelle - with the Maire, the padre, etc. I saw the cows, sat in the 16th century cathedral, had supper in a Lorraine kitchen, gave candy to every child in Feves, received dozens of signed photographs for the people of Morganville. There are no illiterate peasants there. They are good, intelligent farmers, thrilled about Morganville, deeply grateful, endlessly curious, kindly.

When I returned to the hotel, I couldn't sleep at all, because of the deep responsibility we, and Morganville, had incurred. They (in Feves ) understood Morganville, and the "Message to Feves." But, like me, they couldn't quite say what they felt. It will take time, and very great patience on the part of Morganville. For instance, there is only one person there who writes English, and he is afraid it will be awkward, that he might say the wrong thing.

In other words, this whole thing is so delicate to do, especially with Frenchmen, that we must make our towns do it well, or not at all. I know what can be done, but we must do it better than we have.

HOLLAND - No more Food! Except possibly canned meat. The clothes must be wool, sturdy - overalls, long stockings, sweaters. We must think more in terms of lasting gifts - an American reading room, with books, periodicals, etc. for libraries; school supplies (manual training equipment, sewing kits, laboratory supplies, etc.) There are two views in Holland - the official and the man on the street. The former says, "stop sending help! The Dutch have recovered; we can go the rest of the way ourselves - we don't want to appear as beggars." The latter, however, lives in a land which is more thoroughly devastated than any I have seen. He is proud, but he says honestly and without apologizing that his children are cold, his schools barren, his sports fields empty because there isn't even a soccer ball. He wants to know much more about America than appears in the movies, but his opportunities grow less and less. The American Information Library in the Hague is pathetically incapable of meeting the demand. The Voice of America does not broadcast in Dutch. English, contrary to our view, is simply not spoken much.

I hope Victor Scales read between the lines in Van den Ring's letter. United Service to Holland should not stop. There is definite need still. But above all, we must keep these private, non-governmental channels open. The Dutch officialdom, which wants them closed, is simply blind! For instance, they told me that the Burgomaster of Arnhem was luke-warm to the idea of an affiliation with Wilkes-Barre. He is not! My afternoon with him was a heart-warming and deeply encouraging affair. Again, however, Wilkes-Barre has incurred a heavy responsibility, and so have we! It can't be done with scattered bursts of enthusiasm.

LUXEMBOURG - I am fairly impervious to destruction, but Diekirch was almost too much. Sitting with Burgomaster Greisch in his lovely home, I read over the letter he had just received from Mt. Vernon, Iowa. The Burgomaster had just told me of his two years in a concentration camp. I had visited the shell of his former home, and toured the College of Diekirch, whose walls are splashed with shrapnel scars. The good Mrs. Smith of Mt. Vernon sent a tape-measure in her letter so that the ladies of Diekirch could be measured for dresses. My hosts were deeply touched, but they were also amused beyond words. You see, Luxembourg has nearly everything. I am sure that, despite their horrible scars, the people in Diekirch live better than most people in Mt. Vernon. There is wonderful food; the stores are crammed with merchandise. The bridges are new, and there is gay modernity about Luxembourg, as though it had just been hatched. In short, Vivian Flamhaft would be well-advised to stop her work right now, if her purpose is to send relief alone.

BUT the library at the Diekirch college has only the oldest English texts. The Nazis left them some good German books on America, with elaborate prefaces about our decadence. These are reserved, I might add, only for scholars and historians, and turn even their stomachs. There wasn't an American magazine in Diekirch. Above all, however, I found the greatest interest in this thing called "affiliation" with Mt. Vernon. The Burgomaster himself is preparing two scrapbooks to send. He hopes deeply that gifts can be exchanged; that a Diekirch boy can someday go to the college in Mt. Vernon; that the Mayor of Mt. Vernon will come to visit him.

If Mt. Vernon sends clothes, he will receive them gladly and give them to needy cases (there is always need - in the Old Ladies' Home, the Orphanages, etc.) but he will someday explain to Mt. Vernon how things are going here and suggest that it might be better for Mt. Vernon to send some little symbolic gift like a set of good books on American history, a painting by an American artist, etc.

...

Well, that's a brief picture of how it stands. Generalizations are impossible for Feves is not Diekirch; France is not Holland ....

... I have seen hundreds of people over here. Time after time, I have had to walk quietly away from them, for they are so simple, so wise and good that it hurts. Not one of them has failed to understand. what we are doing, or why. Always they make the bridge themselves, without prompting, between the idea of a bar of candy or a friendly letter - and the idea of peace itself.

On the other hand I have seen ours, and their, officials looking a little skeptical, and even annoyed with them. At times, I have felt naive, and almost foolish. But I reassured myself with the knowledge that they, with all their clever assistants, are not doing very well right now, whereas we are at least making a tiny start. A Dutch boy said to me in Zevenbergen - "I heard from a boy in Chanute and he told me about his mountains in Colorado, and his Great Lakes and his prairies." He added, "I wish European boys, living in Holland, France and Italy, could say 'my Alps, my Riviera, my dykes.'" At least, there's one idea we can give to Europe without paying too much ocean freight....

... we should work more with the world government people, et al. At least the idea of a Federated Europe is catching on.

It's midnight, and I'm a wreck. A chronological report follows as soon as possible.

(signed) Charles L. Todd